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SANTA     CRUZ 


HISTORY 


OP   THE 


UNITED     STATES, 


FROM   THE 


DISCOVERY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  CONTINENT. 


BY  GEORGE  BANCROFT. 


VOL.  III. 


SEVENTEENTH      EDITION. 


BOSTON: 

LITTLE,   BROWN,  AND   COMPANY. 
1862. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1840, 

By  GEORGE  BANCROFT, 
In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  Massachusetts. 


HISTORY 


OF  THE 


COLONIZATION 


OF   TEE 


UNITED     STATES. 


BY  GEORGE  BANCROFT. 


VOL.  III. 


SEVENTEENTH      EDITION. 


BOSTON: 

LITTLE,  BROWN,  AND   COMPANY. 

1862. 


E. 


V.3 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER    XIX. 

THE    ABSOLUTE    POWER    OF    PARLIAMENT. 

The  Fortunes  of  the  Stuarts,  p.  1 — The  Aristocratic  Revolution  of  Eng- 
land, 2 — Character  of  William  of  Orange,  3— Sketch  of  Somers,  4— Tne 
Revolution  vindicates  English  Liberties— Freedom  of  Mind,  5 — Right  of 
Resistance,  6 — Power  of  Parliament,  7 — Influence  of  the  Commercial  Class- 
es, 8 — Theory  of  the  Revolution,  9 — Power  of  Opinion,  10 — Free  Press,  11 — 
Character  of  the  Revolution,  12 — Parties  in  South  Carolina,  13 — Abrogation 
of  Locke's  Constitution,  15 — Archdale,  16 — Progress;  Huguenots  enfran- 
chised, 17— High  Church  Faction,  18— Produce  of  Carolina,  19 — North  Caro- 
lina, 20 — Its  Anarchy,  22 — Progress,  24 — Virginia,  25 — Forms  of  Government, 
26— The  Church,  27— Character  of  its  People,  28— ^Maryland,  30— The  Prot- 
estant Association,  30 — Legislation,  31 — Power  of  Proprietary  restored,  33 — 
Pennsylvania,  34 — Delaware,  35 — George  Keith's  Schism,  36 — Fletcher  claims 
the  Government,  37 — Penn  restored,  3(J— Negroes,  41 — New  Constitution,  42 
— New  Jersey,  46 — It  becomes  a  Royal  Province,  48 — New  York,  50 — Leis- 
ler,  51 — Sloughter  arrives,  53 — Leisler  and  Milborne  executed,  55 — Colonial 
Liberties  asserted,  56— Established' Church,  57— Bellamont,  59— Sketch  of 
Lord  Cornbury,  60 — His  Administration,  61 — Lovelace,  Hunter,  64 — Connec- 
ticut, 66 — Commands  its  own  Militia,  67 — Rhode  Island,  68 — Charters  endan- 
gered, 69 — Massachusetts,  70 — Revolution  in  Opinion,  71 — Belief  in  Witch- 
craft, 72— Cotton  Mather,  74— Glover,  the  Witch,  75— Skepticism,  76— Cotton 
Mather,  the  Champion  of  Witchcraft,  77 — New  Charter,  78 — New  Hampshire 
a  Royal  Province,  81— Phipps,  and  Stoughton,  83— Witchcraft  at  Salem,  84 — 
The  New  Charter  arrives,  87— The  Hanging  of  Witches  begins,  88 — More 
Victims,  89 — Confessions,  90— -Will ard,  Burroughs,  Proctor,  91 — Currier,  Ja- 
cobs, 92 — Last  Executions,  93 — Cotton  Mather's  Wonders  of  the  Invisible 
World,  95— Meeting  of  General  Court,  95— The  Delusion  over,  97— Moral 
Revolution,  98-— Dudley,  99 — Parliament  absolute  over  the  Colonies,  100 — 
Taxation,  101— The  Press,  102— Habeas  Corpus,  the  Judiciary,  103— Curren- 
cy, Mercantile  Monopoly,  104— Wool,  105 — Naval  Stores,  106— Manufactures, 
Cbart*»-s  i(V7  Teadercv  to  Independence.  T08. 


VI  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER    XX. 

FRANCE   ANT    THE    VALLEY   OF    THE    MISSISSIPPI. 

European  Colonial  System,  109— Mercantile  System,  110— Its  Develop- 
ments, 111— The  System  of  Portugal,  113 — Spain,  Holland,  114— France  and 
England,  115— New  France,  118— The  Hundred  Associates,  119— Jesuits,  120 
—Jesuits  in  Canada,  121— Character  of  Brebeuf,  124 — Mode  of  Life,  125— 
Hospital,  126 — Ursuline  Convent,  Montreal,  127 — Progress  of  Missions,  128 — 
Itaymbault  and  Jogues  at  the  Falls  of  the  St.  Mary,  131— Jogues  in  Western 
New  York,  132 — Bressani,  134 — Mission  on  the  Kennebec,  135 — Martyrdom 
of  Jogues,  137— Of  Daniel,  138— Of  Brebeuf  and  -Lallemand,  139— Missions  to 
the  Five  Nations,  141— Dablon,  143 — Ren6  Mesnard,  Chaumonot,  144 — The 
Ottawas,  145— Missions  to  the  Far  West;  Gareau,  146— Ren6  Mesnard,  147— 
Allouez.  149— Dablon  and  Marquette,  152— Congress  at  St.  Mary's,  154 — Jes- 
uits in  Michigan,  Wisconsin,  Northern  Illinois,  155 — Joliet,  155 — Marquette 
and  Joiiet  discover  the  Mississippi,  157 — Death  of  Marquette,  161 — La  Salle 
at  Frontenac,  162— On  Lake  Erie,  164— On  the  Miami,  165— Walks  to  Fort 
Frontenac ;  Hennepin's  Discoveries,  166 — Tonti,  167 — La  Salle  descends  the 
Mississippi,  168 — Colony  for  Louisiana,  169— La  Salle  in  Texas,  170— Texas 
&  Part  of  Louisiana,  171 — La  Salle  departs  for  Canada,  172 — Is  murdered,  173 

-Fate  of  his  Companions,  174. 

CHAPTER    XXI. 

FRANCE  CONTENDS  FOR  THE  FISHERIES  AND  THE  GREAT  WEST. 

American  Possessions  of  France,  175 — Alliances;  Objects  of  the  War,  176 
— Relative  Strength  of  French  and  English  Colonies,  177 — Plans  of  Hostility, 
178 — Sack  of  Montreal ;  War  in  Hudson's  Bay,  179— Cocheco,  180— Pema- 
quid,  181 — Schenectady ;  Salmon  Falls,  182 — An  American  Congress,  183 — 
Conquest  of  Acadia,  184 — Expedition  against  Quebec,  185 — War  on  the 
Eastern  Frontier,  186— Hannah  Dustin,  188 — War  of  the  French  with  the 
Five  Nations,  189 — Financial  Measures,  191 — Peace  of  Ryswick — Boundaries, 
192— Detroit  founded,  194— Illinois  colonized,  195— Character  of  D'Iberville 
— Colonization  of  Louisiana,  199 — Collision  with  England  on  the  Mississippi 
202— Exploring  Expeditions,  204— Settlement  on  the  Mobile,  205— War  of 
the  Spanish  Succession,  206 — Expedition  of  South  Carolina  against  St.  Au- 
gustine, 209 — War  with  the  Spanish  Indians,  210 — Attack  on  Charleston- 
War  with  the  Aberiakis,  211— Burning  of  Deerfield,  212— Massacre  at  Haver- 
hill,  214— Bounty  on  Scalps,  216— Conquest  of  Acadia,  217— Character  of 
Bolingbroke,  219 — Plan  for  conquering  Canada,  220 — Sir  Hovenden  Walker 
and  General  Hill,  221— Detroit  besieged,  224 — France  desires  Peace,  225— 
Peace  of  Utrecht,  226— Balance  of  Power,  227— Spain,  Belgium,  229— Free 
Ships,  Free  Goods,  230— The  Assiento  231— British  Slave  Trade,  232— Sui. 
render  of  Territory  to  England,  233. 


CONTENTS.  Vll 


CHAPTER    XXII. 

THE    ABORIGINES    EAST    OF    THE    MISSISSIPPI. 

Cape  Breton,  235 — LANGUAGES  OF  THE  ABORIGINES,  236 — The  Algonquin ; 
Micmacs,  Etchemins,  237,  Abenakis,  Pokanokets,  238,  Lenni  Lenape,  Nanti- 
cokes,  Corees,  239,  Powhatan  Confederacy,  Shawnees,  Miamis,  240,  Illinois, 
241,  Chippewas,  Ottawas,  Menomonies,  Sacs  and  Foxes,  242 — The  Dahcota; 
Sioux,  Winnebagoes,  243 — Huron-Iroquois,  243;  Wyandots,  Iroquois,  244, 
Tuscaroras,  245— The  Catawba;  Woccons,  245— The  Cherokee,  246— The 
Uchee,  247— The  Natchez,  248— The  Mobilian ;  Chickasas,  249,  Choctas, 
Muskhogees,  250— Numbers,  252— Character  of  their  Language,  254 — Its 
Letters,  its  Hieroglyphics,  255— Its  Poverty  of  Abstract  Terms,  25d— Its  Syn- 
thetic Character,  257 — Inferences,  263 — MANNERS  OF  THE  ABORIGINES,  265 
—Dwellings— Marriage,  266— The  Mother  and  Child,  268— Education,  269— 
Condition  of  Woman,  270— Resources,  271— Hospitality,  272 — Famine- 
Treatment  of  the  Sick,  the  Aged — Dress,  273 — POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS,  274 
—Absence  of  Law— Retaliation,  275— The  Tribe,  276— Its  Chiefs,  277— Its 
Councils,  278— Records,  279— The  Code  of  War,  280— RELIGION,  284— Idea 
of  Divinity,  285— Origin  of  Faith,  286 — Manitous,  287— Sacrifices,  288— Pen- 
ance— Guardian  Spirits,  290 — Medicine  Men,  291 — Temples — Dreams,  293 — 
Faith  in  Immortality,  294— Burials,  295— The  World  of  Shades,  298— Graves, 
299— NATURAL  ENDOWMENTS,  299— Correspondence  of  Powers,  300— Organ- 
ic Differences,  301— Inflexibility— Uniformity  of  Organization,  304— Physical 
Characteristics,  305 — Progress  of  Improvement — ORIGIN,  306 — Mounds,  307 — 
Traditions,  309— Analogies  of  Language,  310— Of  Customs,  311 — Israelites, 
Egyptians,  Carthaginians,  312 — Scandinavians,  Chinese,  313 — Astronomical 
Science  in  America  and  Asia,  314 — American  Culture  its  own,  315— Con- 
nection of  America  and  Asia,  316 — The  American  and  Mongolian  Races,  317 


CHAPTER    XXIII. 

THE  COLONIES  OF  FRANCE  AND  ENGLAND  ENCROACH  MORE  AND  MORE  ON 

THE  RED  MEN. 

Lawson  and  GrafFenried  among  the  Tuscaroras,  319 — Death  of  Lawson ; 
War  with  the  Tuscaroras,  320 — House  of  Hanover;  George  I.,  322 — Philip  ol" 
Orleans,  323— Walpole,  324— Fleury,  325— War  with  the  Yamassees,  32(>~ 
Revolution  in  Carolina,  328 — It  becomes  a  Royal  Province,  331 — Treaty  with 
the  Cherokees,  332 — Disputes  with  France  on  the  North-East — Sebastian 
Rasles,  333— His  Death,  337— LovewelPs  Fight— Peace  with  the  Eastern 
Indians  338 — Bounds  on  the  Lakes  and  St.  Lawrence — Oswego,  339 — Claims 
of  England,  340 — French  Forts  at  Crown  Point,  at  Niagara,  341 — Extent  of 
Louisiana,  343 — The  French  on  the  Ohio — English  Jealousy  arousod,  344 — 
Indifference  of  Walpole,  345 — Vincennes,  346 — Louisiana  under  Crozat,  347 
—The  Credit  System  of  Law,  349— The  Mississippi  Company,  351— New 
Orleans,  352— War  between  France  and  Spain,  353— France  claims  Texas, 


viii  CONTENTS, 

353 — Progress  and  End  of  the  Mississippi  Company,  354 — Its  Moral,  357 — 
The  Natchez,  358— They  begin  a  Massacre,  360-— The  Natchez  are  defeated, 
363— The  Crown  resumes  Louisiana,  364— War  with  the  Chickasas,  365— 
D'Artaguette  and  Vincennes,  366— War  renewed,  368 — Louisiana  in  1740— 
Progress  of  Anglo-American  Colonies,  369 — Schools  and  Colleges — Berkeley 
372— The  Press,  374— Benjamin  Franklin,  375— His  Character,  376— Char- 
ters in  Danger,  380 — Walpole  and  Colonial  Taxation,  383 — American  Man- 
ufactures forbidden,  384 — Sugar  Colonies  favored,  385 — Paper  Money,  386 — 
Royal  Monopoly  of  Masts,  390 — Synod  refused  ;  a  Fixed  Salary  for  Governor 
demanded,  391 — Petition  to  Parliament  against  the  King — Inheritance  ot 
t^nds,  392— Truth  no  Libel,  393— Power  of  the  People,  394— Virginia,  396 


CHAPTER    XXIV. 

ENGLISH    ENCROACHMENTS    ON    THE  COLONIAL   MONOPOLY  OF  SPAIN,  PREPARE 
AMERICAN    INDEPENDENCE. 

Motives  of  an  Historian  to  write  a  true  History;  Test  of  Truth,  397— Truth 
in  History  can  be  ascertained — The  Law  of  Progress,  398 — History  the  Rec- 
ord of  God's  Providence — Edwards,  Vico,  Bossuet,  399 — Metropolitan  Monop- 
olists divided,  400 — South  Sea  Company  and  the  Assiento,  401 — England  and 
the  Slave  Trade— Slave  Coast,  402— The  Slave  in  Africa,  403— The  Passage, 
404— The  African  in  North  America,  405— Numbers,  406— Labors,  407— 
Progress;  Emancipation,  408 — Conversion  did  not  enfranchise,  409 — Color 
—Colonies  and  the  Slave  Trade,  410^England  and  the  Slave  Trade,  411— 
Moral  Opinion,  412 — English  Legislation,  413 — England  compels  the  Colonies 
to  admit  Negro  Slaves,  415 — England  and  Spain,  416 — Colonization  of  Geor- 
gia proposed,  417 — Oglethorpe  and  Imprisonment  for  Debt,  418— Plans  a  Col- 
ony, 419 — Oglethorpe  at  Savannah,  420 — Council  with  the  Muskhogees,  421 — 
Cherokees  and  Choctas,  422 — Moravian  Emigrants,  423 — Oglethorpe  returns 
to  England,  425 — Land  Titles— Ardent  Spirits— Slaves,  426— New  Emigra- 
tion, 427— John  and  Charles  Wesley,  428— Whitefield,  429— Frederica,  430— 
Darien — Contest  on  Boundaries,  431 — Treaty  with  Indians,  433 — Negro  Slave- 
ry still  interdicted — Oglethorpe  among  the  Muskhogees,  434 — England  and 
English  Smugglers,  435 — Tale  of  Jenkins's  Ears,  436 — The  Convention,  437-- 
War,  438 — Anson — Vernon  at  Porto  Bello,  439 — Attack  on  Carthagena,  441 — 
111  Success,  442 — Oglethorpe  invades  Florida,  443 — Spaniards  invade  Georgia, 
444— Character  of  Oglethorpe,  446— Slavery  in  Georgia,  448— Fleury  averse 
to  War — War  of  the  Austrian  Succession,  449 — War  of  France  with  England, 
450— The  Pretender,  451— Frederick  II.  and  Prussia— War  in  the  East  Indies, 
452— Madras  taken— Behring  discovers  North- West  America,  453— The  Cen- 
tral  Provinces  undisturbed,  454— Treaty  at  Lancaster  with  the  Six  Nations,  455 
—Franklin's  Volunteer  Militia,  456— New  England  resolves  to  conquer  Louis- 
burg,  457— The  Expedition,  458— Sails  to  Cape  Breton,  459— Lands  at  Lou- 
isburg,  460— The  Siege,  461— The  Surrender— 111  Success  of  French  Fleets, 
463— Plan  of  conquering  Canada  abandoned— Kalm's  Opinion,  464— Impress 
ment  of  Sailors,  465— Congress  of  Aix  la  Chapelle,  466— Washington,  467 


COLONIAL    HISTORY. 


CHAPTER   XIX. 

THE  ABSOLUTE  POWER  OF  PARLIAMENT 

THE  Stuarts  passed  from  the  throne  of  England.  CHAP. 
Their  family,  distinguished  by  a  blind  resistance  to  ^*-*> 
popular  opinion,  was  no  less  distinguished  by  misfor- 
tunes. During  the  period  of  their  separate  sovereignty 
over  Scotland,  but  three  of  the  race  escaped  a  violent 
death.  The  first  of  them  who  aspired  to  the  crown 
of  Great  Britain  was  by  an  English  monarch  doomed 
to  death  on  the  scaffold ;  her  grandson  was  beheaded 
in  the  name  of  the  English  people.  The  next  in  the 
line,  long  a  needy  exile,  is  remembered  chiefly  for  his 
vices ;  and,  as  if  a  domestic  crime  could  alone  avenge 
the  national  wrongs,  James  II.  was  reduced  from 
royalty  to  beggary  by  the  conspiracy  of  his  own 
children.  Yet  the  New  World  has  monuments  of  the 
Stuarts ;  North  America  acquired  its  British  colonies 
during  their  rule,  and  towns,  rivers,  headlands,  and 
even  states  bear  their  names.  The  pacific  disposition 
of  James  I.  promoted  the  settlement  of  Virginia ;  a 
timely  neglect  fostered  New  England  ;  the  favoritism 
of  Charles  I.  opened  the  way  for  religious  liberty  .in 
Maryland;  Rhode  Island  long  cherished  the  charter 
which  its  importunity  won  from  Charles  II. ;  the  honest 
friendship  of  James  II.  favored  the  grants  which  gave 
VOL.  in.  1 


2  THE   STUARTS      REVOLUTION   OF  1688. 

CHAP,  liberties    to    Pennsylvania,   and    extended   them    to 

Delaware ;  the  crimes  of  the  dynasty  banished  to  our 

country  men  of  learning,  virtue,  and  fortitude.  Thus 
did  despotism  render  benefits  to  freedom.  "  The  wis- 
dom of  God,"  as  John  Knox  had  predicted,  "  compelled 
the  very  malice  of  Satan,  and  such  as  were  drowned 
in  sin,  to  serve  to  his  glory  and  the  profit  of  his 
elect." 

Four  hundred  and  seventy-four  years  after  the 
barons  at  Runnymede  had  extorted  Magna  Charta 
from  their  legitimate  king,  the  aristocratic  revolution 
of  1688  established  for  England  and  its  dominions  the 
sovereignty  of  Parliament  and  the  supremacy  of  law. 
Its  purpose  was  the  security  of  property  and  existing 
franchises,  and  not  the  abolition  of  privilege,  or  the 
equalization  of  political  power.  The  chiefs  of  the 
nobility  who,  in  1640,  had  led  the  people  in  its  struggle 
for  liberty,  had,  from  the  passionate  enthusiasm  of  "  a 
generous  inexperience,"  been  hurried,  against  their 
design,  into  measures  which  their  interests  opposed. 
Made  circumspect  by  the  past,  the  renewed  contest 
did  not  disturb  their  prudence,  nor  triumph  impair 
their  moderation.  Avoiding  the  collisions  with  estab- 
lished privileges  that  spring  from  the  fanatical  exag- 
geration of  abstract  principles,  still  placing  the  hope 
of  security  on  the  system  of  checks  and  the  balance  of 
opposing  powers,  they  made  haste  to  finish  the  work 
of  establishing  the  government.  The  character  of  the 
new  monarch  of  Great  Britain  could  mould  its  policy, 
but  not  its  constitution.  True  to  his  purposes,  he  yet 
wins  no  sympathy.  In  political  sagacity,  in  force  ol 
will,  far  superior  to  the  English  statesmen  who  envi- 
roned him  ;  more  tolerant  than  his  ministers  or  his 
parliaments,  the  childless  man  seems  like  the  unknown 


WILLIAM   OF   ORANGE.  O 

character  in  algebra  which  is  introduced  to  form  the  CHAP. 

XIX. 

equation,  and  dismissed  when  the  problem  is  solved.  **~**^ 
In  his  person  thin  and  feeble,  with  eyes  of  a  hectic 
lustre,  of  a  temperament  inclining  to  the  melancholic, 
in  conduct  cautious,  of  a  self-relying  humor,  with 
abiding  impressions  respecting  men,  he  sought  no  fa- 
vor, and  relied  for  success  on  his  own  inflexibility  and 
the  greatness  and  maturity  of  his  designs.  Too  wise 
to  be  cajoled,  too  firm  to  be  complaisant,  no  address 
could  sway  his  resolve.  In  Holland,  he  had  not 
scrupled  to  derive  an  increase  of  power  from  the 
crimes  of  rioters  and  assassins ;  in  England,  no  filial 
respect  diminished  the  energy  of  his  ambition.  His 
exterior  was  chilling ;  yet  he  had  a  passionate  delight 
in  horses  and  the  chase.  In  conversation  he  was 
abrupt,  speaking  little  and  slowly,  and  with  repulsive 
dryness ;  in  the  day  of  battle,  he  was  all  activity,  and 
the  highest  energy  of  life,  without  kindling  his  passions, 
animated  his  frame.  His  trust  in  Providence  was  so 
connected  with  faith  in  general  laws,  that,  in  every 
action,  he  sought  the  principle  which  should  range  it 
on  an  absolute  decree.  Thus,  unconscious  to  himself, 
he  had  sympathy  with  the  people,  who  always  have 
faith  in  Providence.  "  Do  you  dread  death  in  my 
company  ? "  he  cried  to  the  anxious  sailors,  when  the 
ice  on  the  coast  of  Holland  had  almost  crushed  the 
boat  that  was  bearing  him  to  the  shore.  Courage  and 
pride  pervaded  the  reserve  of  the  prince  who,  spurning 
an  alliance  with  a  bastard  daughter  of  Louis  XIV., 
had  made  himself  the  centre  of  a  gigantic  opposition 
to  France.  For  England,  for  the  English  people,  for 
English  liberties,  he  had  no  affection,  indifferently 
employing  the  whigs,  who  found  their  pride  in  the 
revolution,  and  the  tories,  who  had  opposed  his  eleva- 


4  VINDICATION  OF   ENGLISH    LIBERTIES. 

CHAP,  tion,  and  who  yet  were  the  fittest  instruments  "  to 
— ^  carry  the  prerogative  high."  One  great  passion  had 
absorbed  his  breast — the  independence  of  his  native 
country.  The  harsh  encroachments  of  Louis  XIV., 
which,  in  1672,  had  made  William  of  Orange  a  revo- 
lutionary stadtholder,  now  assisted  to  constitute  him 
a  revolutionary  king,  transforming  the  impassive  cham- 
pion of  Dutch  independence  into  the  defender  of  the 
liberties  of  Europe. 

The  English  statesmen  who  settled  the  principles 
of  the  revolution,  careless  of  ideal  excellence,  took 
experience  for  their  guide.  It  is  true  that  Somers, 
the  acknowledged  leader  of  the  whig  party,  of  plebeian 
origin,  and  unsupported  by  inherited  fortune,  was 
ready,  with  the  new  king  from  a  Calvinistic  common- 
wealth, to  admit  corresponding  maxims  of  government 
and  religion.  Yet,  free  from  fanaticism,  even  to  in- 
difference, by  nature,  by  his  profession  as  a  lawyer, 
and  by  the  tastes  which  he  had  cultivated,  averse  to 
metaphysical  abstractions,  he  labored  to  confirm  Eng- 
lish liberties,  not  to  establish  the  rights  of  man ;  to 
make  an  inventory  of  the  privileges  of  Englishmen, 
and  imbody  them  in  a  public  law,  and  not  to  introduce 
a  new  capitulation,  or  to  establish  a  perfect  republic. 
Freedom  sought  its  title-deeds,  not  in  the  nature  of 
man,  but  in  the  experience  of  the  past,  in  records, 
charters,  and  prescription.  The  revolution  of  1688 
was  made,  not  on  a  theory  of  absolute  justice,  but  on 
the  facts  friendly  to  freedom  which  were  claimed  as 
the  inheritance  of  the  nation.  The  bill  of  rights  was 
regarded  as  a  distinct,  written  recapitulation  of  ancient, 
well-established  national  possessions ;  English  liber- 
ties, questioned  by  the  abdicated  king,  were  now 
adapted  to  the  spirit  of  the  age,  and,  with  some 


PROGRESS   OF   INTELLECTUAL   FREEDOM.  5 

increase,  were  reasserted  and  confirmed  as  an  inalien-  CHAP. 
able  property.      The  tide  of  English  liberty  was  ad-  ^^ 
vancing;  the  rising  wave  rolled  beyond   the   highest 
mark  of  that  which  was  receding. 

In  the  progress  of  civilization,  the  human  mind  had 
been  steadily  tending  towards  the  principle  of  inquiry 
and  freedom.  This  principle  could  not  as  yet  conquer 
for  itself  a  place  in  the  laws ;  yet  the  only  ground  on 
which  its  admission  could  consistently  be  refused  was 
abandoned.  The  Anglican  church,  which,  under  the 
guardianship  of  authority,  had  aspired  to  assert  for 
England  unity  of  faith,  as  the  Catholic  church  had 
claimed  to  assert  it  for  the  whole  human  race,  still 
retained  the  monopoly  of  political  power ;  but  a  statute, 
narrow,  indeed,  in  theory,  and  penuriously  conceding 
a  limited  enfranchisement  of  mind  as  a  privilege, 
tolerated  dissenters,  and  opened  a  career  to  freedom 
of  religious  opinion.  With  unrelenting  zeal,  the 
"  Protestant "  revolution  did,  indeed,  persecute  the 
Roman  Catholics  as  a  defeated  tyranny,  oppressed 
them  with  civil  disfranchisements,  and  left  them  with- 
out allies,  exposed  to  the  vindictive  severities  of  legal 
despotism  ;  but  for  Protestant  liberty  and  philosophic 
freedom  the  victory  was  decisive. 

The  ancient  monarchical  system,  which  had  con- 
nected the  unity  of  truth  with  authority,  had  also 
asserted  the  necessity  of  order  in  the  state,  under  the 
doctrine  of  the  personal,  divine  right  of  the  king  to 
the  sovereignty.  This  right  was  maintained  by  the 
Catholic  church  against  every  power  but  its  own. 
Protestantism  abolished  the  supremacy  of  the  Roman 
see  ;  and  the  monarchical  reformers,  Luther,  Cranmer, 
Ridley,  Latimer,  the  homilies  of  the  Anglican  church, 
recognized  legitimacy  without  reserve,  and.  opposing 


6  LEGITIMACY  YIELDS  TO  CONSTITUTIONAL  MONARCHY. 

CHAP,  the  Roman  pretension  to  a  power  of  dispensing  from 
~~^  allegiance,  taught  passive  obedience.  The  right  of 
resistance — familiar  to  Calvin  and  Knox,  to  the  early 
Puritans  and  the  Presbyterians,  not  of  itself  a  demo- 
cratic doctrine,  but  rather  the  most  cherished  principle 
of  feudal  liberty,  familiar  to  the  nobles  of  every  mon- 
archy in  Europe— was  the  next  conquest  in  the  prog- 
ress of  popular  freedom :  the  idea  of  popular  powar 
would  follow,  but  was  not  yet  ripe.  The  revolution  of 
1688  dismissed  the  doctrine  of  passive  obedience  from 
the  statute-book,  to  take  its  place,  for  the  English 
world,  among  exploded  superstitions.  The  old  system 
of  legitimacy,  as  it  had  existed  in  the  monarchies  of 
Christendom,  was  summoned  to  expire,  and  yielded, 
not  as  in  Denmark,  and  afterwards  in  Prussia,  to  a 
military  monarchy,  nor  yet  to  the  supremacy  of  reason 
as  expressed  by  the  popular  conviction,  but  to  the 
transition  theory  of  a  social  compact,  to  constitutional 
monarchy.  The  commons,  by  a  vast  majority,  declared 
the  executive  power  to  be  a  conditional  trust ;  and  the 
hereditary  assembly  of  patricians,  struggling  in  vain  for 
a  compromise  with  legitimacy  by  the  appointment  of 
a  regency  friendly  to  the  church,  or  by  simply  ac- 
knowledging the  accession  of  the  next  unquestioned 
heir,  at  length,  after  earnest  debates,  submitted  to 
confess  an  original  contract  between  king  and  people. 
The  election  of  William  III.  to  be  king  for  life  was  a 
triumph  of  the  perseverance  of  the  more  popular  party 
in  the  commons  over  the  deep,  inherited  prejudices  of 
the  high  aristocracy.  In  this  lies  the  democratic 
tendency  that  won  to  the  revolution  the  scattered 
remnant  of  "  the  good  old  "  republican  "  cause  ;  "  this 
appropriated  to  the  whigs  the  glory  of  the  change,  in 
which  they  exulted,  and  of  which  the  tories  regretted 


SUPREMACY    OF  PARLIAMENT.  7 

and  excused  the  necessity.     This  also  has  commended  CHAP. 
to  the  friends  of  freedom  the  epoch  in  which  the  great  -^~ 
European  world  beheld  a  successful  insurrection  against 
legitimacy  and  authority  over  mind. 

By  resolving  that  James  II.  had  abdicated,  the 
representatives  of  the  English  people  assumed  to  sit 
in  judgment  on  its  kings.  By  declaring  the  throne 
vacant,  they  annihilated  the  principle  of  legitimacy. 
By  disfranchising  a  dynast)  for  professing  the  Roman 
faith,  they  not  only  exerted  the  power  of  interpreting 
the  original  contract,  but  of  introducing  into  it  new 
conditions.  By  electing  a  king,  they  made  themselves 
his  constituents  ;  and  the  parliament  of  England  be- 
came the  fountain  of  sovereignty  for  the  English 
world. 

The  royal  prerogative  of  a  veto  on  English  legisla- 
tion soon  fell  into  disuse.  The  dispensing  power  was 
expressly  abrogated,  or  denied.  The  judiciary  was 
rendered  independent  of  the  crown ;  so  that  enfran- 
chisements were  safe  against  executive  interference, 
and  state  trials  ceased  to  be  collisions  between  blood- 
thirsty hatred  and  despair.  For  England,  parliament 
was  absolute. 

The  progress  of  civilization  had  gradually  elevated 
the  commercial  classes,  and  given  importance  to  towns. 
It  now  set  up,  as  its  landmark  and  evidence  of  ad- 
vancement, the  acknowledged  influence  and  power  of 
the  men  of  business  ;  of  those  who  make  the  exchanges 
between  the  consumer  and  the  producer,  and  those 
also  who  assist  the  exchanges  by  advances.  The 
reverence  for  the  landed  aristocracy  was  deeply 
branded  into  the  rural  mind ;  in  the  parliament  of 
Richard  Cromwell,  it  had  even  been  said  that  the 
country  people  were  ready  to  become  insurgents  for 


8  INFLUENCE  OF  THE   COMMERCIAL  CLASSES. 

CHAP,  their  restoration.  It  was  in  cities  and  towns,  among 
—v-^  those  engaged  in  commerce,  in  which  the  ancient 
patricians  had  no  share,  that  the  spirit  of  liberty  be- 
came active,  and  was  quickened  by  the  cupidity  which 
sought  new  benefits  for  trade  through  political  influ- 
ence. The  day  for  shouting  liberty  and  equality  had 
not  come  ;  the  cry  was,  "  Liberty  and  property."  The 
revolution  was  made  by  the  property  of  the  country, 
and  wealth  became  a  power  in  the  state ;  and  when, 
at  elections,  the  country  people  were  first  invited  to 
seek  other  representatives  than  the  large  landholders, 
it  was  not  the  leveller  or  the  republican,  but  the  mer- 
chant, or  a  candidate  in  the  interest  of  the  merchant, 
who  taught  the  timid  electors  their  first  lessons  in  in- 
dependence. 

But  the  moneyed  class  gained  influence  in  two  other 
modes — the  manner  of  granting  supplies,  and  the 
credit  system.  The  civil  list  was  fixed  for  the  whole 
reign ;  all  other  supplies  were  granted  annually,  and 
were  subjects  of  special  appropriation ;  so  that  the 
king,  who  had  been  elected  by  parliament,  was  sub- 
ject to  its  enactments,  and,  dependent  on  its  annual 
supplies,  was  also  held  responsible  for  the  expenditure 
of  the  public  treasure. 

Moreover,  as  the  expenses  of  wars  soon  exceeded 
the  revenue  of  England,  the  government  prepared  to 
avail  itself  of  the  largest  credit  which,  not  the  accu- 
mulations of  wealth  only,  but  the  floating  credits  of 
commerce  and  the  funding  system,  could  supply. 
The  price  of  such  aid  was  political  influence.  That  the 
government  should,  as  its  paramount  policy,  promote 
commerce,  domestic  manufactures,  and  a  favorable 
balance  of  trade;  that  the  classes  benefited  by  this 
plicy  should  sustain  the  government  with  their  credit 


THE  POLITICAL  THEORY   OF  THE  REVOLUTION.  9 

and  their  wealth,  was  the  reciprocal  relation  and  com-  CHAP 

XIX 

promise,  on  which  rested  the  fate  of  parties  in  England.  - — ^ 
The  floating  credits  of  commerce,  aided  by  commercial 
accumulations,  soon  grew  powerful  enough  to  balance 
the  landed  interest :  stock  aristocracy  competed  with 
feudalism.  So  imposing  was  the  spectacle  of  the 
introduction  of  the  citizens  and  of  commerce  as  the 
arbiter  of  alliances,  the  umpire  of  factions,  the  judge  of 
war  arid  peace,  that  it  roused  the  attention  of  specu- 
lative men ;  that,  at  last,  Bolingbroke,  claiming  to 
speak  for  the  landed  aristocracy,  described  his  oppo- 
nents, the  whigs,  as  the  party  of  the  banks,  the  com- 
mercial corporations,  and,  "  in  general,  the  moneyed 
interest ; "  and  the  gentle  Addison,  espousing  the 
cause  of  the  burghers,  declared  nothing  to  be  more 
reasonable  than  that  "  those  who  have  engrossed  the 
riches  of  the  nation  should  have  the  management  of 
its  public  treasure,  and  the  direction  of  its  fleets  and 
armies."  In  a  word,  the  old  English  aristocracy  was 
compelled  to  respect  the  innovating  element  imbodied 
in  the  moneyed  interest. 

Still  more  revolutionary  was  the  political  theory 
developed  by  the  revolution.  The  old  idea  of  a 
Christian  monarchy  resting  on  the  law  of  God  was 
exploded,  and  political  power  sought  its  origin  in 
compact.  Absolute  monarchy  was  denied  to  be  a  form  naiiam 
of  civil  government.  Nothing,  it  was  held,  can  bind 
freemen  to  obey  any  government  save  their  own 
agreement.  Political  power  is  a  trust ;  and  a  breach 
of  the  trust  dissolves  the  obligation  to  allegiance. 
The  supreme  power  is  the  legislature,  to  whose 
guardianship  it  has  been  sacredly  and  unalterably 
delegated.  By  the  fundamental  law  of  property,  no 
taxes  may  be  levied  on  the  people  but  by  its  own 

VOL.  III.  2 


10  POWER  OF   PUBLIC  OPINION. 

CHAP,  consent,  or  that  of  its  authorized  agents.     These  were 

-  the  doctrines  of  the  revolution,  dangerous  to  European 

institutions,  and  dear  to  the  colonies ;  menacing  the 
Old  World  with  convulsive  struggles  and  reforms,  and 
establishing  for  America  the  sanctity  of  its  own  legis- 
lative bodies.  Throughout  the  English  world,  the 
right  to  representation  could  never  again  be  separated 
from  the  power  of  taxation.  The  theory  gave  to 
vested  rights  in  England  a  bulwark  against  the  mon- 
arch ;  it  encouraged  the  colonists  to  assert  their 
privileges,  as  possessing  a  sanctity  which  tyranny 
only  could  disregard,  and  which  could  perish  only  by 
destroying  allegiance  itself. 

But  the  revolution  is  still  further  marked  as  a  conse- 
quence of  public  opinion,  effected  without  bloodshed 
in  favor  of  the  strongest  conviction.  Far  from  being  a 
result  of  force,  it  refused  to  confirm  itself  by  force,  and 
would  not  tolerate  standing  armies.  It  even  compelled 
William  III.  to  dismiss  his  Dutch  guards.  A  free 
discussion  of  the  national  policy  and  its  agents  was 
more  and  more  demanded  and  permitted.  The  Eng- 
lish government,  which  used  to  punish  censure  of  its 
measures  or  its  ministers  with  merciless  severity,  began 
to  lean  on  public  conviction.  The  whigs  could  not 
consistently  restrain  debate  ;  the  tories,  from  their 
interests,  as  usually  a  minority,  desired  freedom  to 
appeal  to  popular  sympathy ;  and  the  adherents  of  the 
fallen  dynasty  loved  to  multiply  complaints  against 
impious  usurpation.  All  were  clamorous  for  liberty; 
and  even  Jacobites  and  patriots  could,  at  last,  frame  a 
coalition.  The  nation  had  elected  its  dynasty  from  a 
commonwealth  which  had  allowed  a  home  to  Spinoza, 
and  had  sheltered  skepticism  itself  in  Bayle ;  and  it 
was  no  longer  possible  to  set  limits  to  the  active  spirit 


LIBERTY   OF  UNLICENSED   PRINTING.  11 

of  inquiry.  The  philosophy  of  Locke,  cherishing  the  CHAP. 
variety  that  is  always  the  first  fruit  of  analysis  and  free  ^-v-^ 
research,  was  protected  and  admired,  even  though  it 
seemed  to  endanger  some  dogmas  of  the  Church,  of 
which  the  denial  was  still,  by  the  statutes,  a  crime. 
The  English  chancellor  would  have  become  openly 
the  friend  of  Bayle,  if  the  self-respect  of  the  scholar 
had  not  refused  his  patronage.  Men  not  only  dis- 
sented from  the  unity  of  faith,  but  even  denied  the 
reality  of  faith ;  and  philosophy,  passing  from  the  ideal 
world  to  the  actual,  claimed  the  right  of  observing, 
weighing,  measuring,  and  doubting,  at  its  will.  The 
established  censorship  of  the  press,  by  its  own  limita- 
tion, drew  near  its  end,  and,  after  a  short  renewal,  was 
suffered  to  expire,  never  again  to  be  revived.  Eng- 
land enjoyed  the  liberty  of  unlicensed  printing.  If 
prosecutions  for  libels  still  continued,  if  the  cowardice 
of  the  courts  hesitated  to  assert  the  freedom  of  the 
press,  the  torrent,  destined  to  swell  with  advancing 
vears,  was  already  irresistible.  Its  force  was  increased 
by  the  unlimited  freedom  of  parliamentary  debate,  the 
freedom  of  elections,  and  the  right  of  petition,  which 
belonged  to  every  Englishman. 

Here,  and  here  only,  lies  the  democratic  character 
of  the  revolution.  Its  authors  had  carefully  sought  to 
reconcile  the  new  with  the  old,  had  been  unwilling  to 
agitate  the  public  mind,  had  avoided  glaring  reforms. 
"  In  the  revolution  of  1688,  there  was  certainly  no  naiiam, 

IV    OQI 

appeal  to  the  people."  In  the  contest  between  the 
nation  and  the  throne,  the  aristocracy  constituted  itself 
the  mediating  lawgiver,  and  made  privilege  the  bul- 
wark of  the  commons  against  despotism.  The  free 
press  carried  political  discussions  every  where.  By 
slow  degrees,  a  popular  opinion  would  gather  a  con- 


12  CHARACTER  OF  THE   REVOLUTION. 

CHAP,  sciousness  of  existence.  By  slow  degrees,  the  common 
~~^-  people  would  gain  hardihood  enough  to  present  pe- 
titions ;  to  convene  for  the  consideration  of  public 
grievances.  If  the  aristocracy  refused  to  abdicate  the 
control  of  parliament ;  if  Lord  Somers  did  not  propose 
a  reform  of  boroughs,  such  as  the  people  of  that  day 
had  not  learned  to  desire ;  the  liberty  of  unlicensed 
printing  opened  an  avenue  for  diffusing  political  in- 
struction, and  was  a  pledge  of  the  ultimate  concession 
of  every  reform  which  increasing  intelligence  might 
obtain  the  moral  force  to  demand. 

Thus  the  revolution  of  1688,  narrow  in  its  principles, 
imperfect  in  its  details,  frightfully  intolerant  towards 
Catholics,  forms  an  era  in  the  history  of  the  liberty  of 
England  and  of  mankind.  Henceforward,  the  title 
of  the  king  to  the  crown  was  bound  up  with  the  title 
of  the  aristocracy  to  its  privileges,  and  of  the  people 
to  its  liberties :  it  sprung  from  the  nation,  and  not 
from  a  power  superior  to  the  nation  ;  from  law,  and 
not  from  divine  right ;  and  its  responsibility  was  there- 
fore not  to  God  alone,  but  to  God  and  the  nation. 
The  revolution  respected  existing  possessions,  yet  made 
conquests  for  freedom ;  preserved  the  ascendency  of 
the  aristocracy,  yet  increased  the  weight  and  the 
numbers  of  the  middling  class.  It  mitigated  the  evils 
which  it  did  not  absolutely  abolish,  increasing  the 
securities  of  personal  liberty,  of  opinion,  of  the  press, 
and  of  the  responsibility  of  the  executive.  England 
became  the  star  of  constitutional  liberty,  shining  bril- 
liantly as  a  beacon  on  the  horizon  of  Europe.  Her 
institutions  won  respect  in  the  heart  of  despotic  coun- 
tries, compelling  the  eulogies  of  Montesquieu  and  the 
homage  of  Voltaire.  Never  in  the  history  of  man  had 
so  large  a  state  been  blessed  with  institutions  so 


INFLUENCE   ON    THE   PROGRESS   OF  HUMANITY.  13 


favorable  to  public  happiness,  to  the  arts  of  peace,  to 
the  development  of  the  natural  resources.  Of  old,  —  *•*• 
Greece,  in  collision  with  the  East,  had  spread  the 
civilization  of  Hellas  through  Asia  Minor  and  the 
regions  that  encircle  the  Levant  ;  Rome,  entering  into 
relations  with  Greece,  as  the  conqueror  of  her  soil, 
became  imbued  with  her  civilization,  and  by  its  sword 
carried  that  civilization  to  the  Danube  and  the  Rhine, 
to  Western  Europe  and  to  Britain.  The  destiny  of 
Great  Britain  was  still  more  grand  :  her  commerce 
connected  her  with  every  quarter  of  the  globe  ;  she 
sought  to  make  the  world  a  tributary  to  her  industry  ; 
and  her  colonies,  her  commercial  stations,  and  her 
trade,  were  so  many  pledges  that  the  whole  race 
would  participate  in  the  benefit  of  her  liberties  and  her 
culture. 

To  the  English  people,  the  supremacy  of  parliament 
was  the  source  of  hope  :  the  colonies  could  not  fail  to 
perceive  that,  as  the  revolution  of  1688  had  been 
made  for  the  rights  of  Englishmen,  not  for  the  rights 
of  man,  so,  in  its  external  policy,  the  dominant  motive 
was  the  interest  of  England,  and  not  the  reciprocity 
of  justice. 

To  the  proprietaries  of  Carolina  the  respect  of  the  1689 
revolution  for  vested  rights  secured  their  possessions. 
In  the  territory  itself,  south  and  west  of  Cape  Fear, 
political  parties  had  already  become  passionate,  if  they 
had  not  acquired  consistency.  Of  "  the  pretended 
Churchmen  "  who  were  among  the  early  emigrants, 
some  were  known  as  "ill  livers,"  having  the  manners 
of  the  time  of  Charles  II.  The  larger  part  of  the 
settlers  were  dissenters,  bringing  with  them  the  faith 
and  the  staid  sobriety  of  the  Calvinists  of  that  age. 
At  fifcst,  "  the  ill  livers,"  averse  to  restraint,  opposed 


14  SOUTH   CAROLINA. 

CHAP,  the  proprietaries,  whose  government  the  grave  Pres- 
^^-  byterians,  as  friends  to  order,  sustained.  When  the 
obstinate  perversity  of  the  proprietaries  drove  the 
Presbyterians  into  opposition,  those  who  were  styled 
"  the  nobility,"  together  with  the  High  Church  party, 
constituted  a  colonial  oligarchy  against  the  great  mass 
of  the  people.  The  dissenters,  who,  from  respect  to 
an  established  government,  had  favored  the  proprieta- 
ries, now  joined  even  with  "  ill  livers "  in  behalf  of 
colonial  rights. 

1690.  The  people  had  deposed  Colleton.     His  successor 
was  Seth  Sothell,  who  to  pretensions  as  a  proprietary 
added  the  choice  of  the  people.     His  administration  is 
the  triumph  of  the  more  popular  party  ;  and  its  enact- 
ments were  made,  with  silent  disregard  of  the  nobility, 

statutes  by  the  exclusive  consent  of  the  commons.    The  "  wise, 

if.  38j!i!  moderate,  and  well-living  "  Thomas   Smith,  who  had 

advised  martial  law,  and  those  who  had  established  it, 

40-42.   were  disfranchised  for  two  years.     Methods  of  colonial 

1691.  defence  were  adopted,  and  were,  in  the  following  years, 
64-68.  improved  by  providing  military  stores,  and  establishing 
Ma  j*  a  revenue  ;  and,  in  May,   the  Huguenots  were  fully 
statutes  enfranchised,  as  though  they  had  been  freeborn  citizens. 

^  The  statute-book  of  South  Carolina  attests  the  mode- 
ration and  liberality  of  the  government,  which  derived 
its  chief  sanction  from  the  people. 

But  tranquillity  did  not  return.  As  the  revolution 
of  1688  respected  the  rights  of  the  proprietaries,  the 
insurrectionary  government  soon  came  to  an  end. 
Factions  multiplied  in  a  colony  which  had  as  yet 
gained  no  moral  unity.  The  legal  sovereigns  would 
not  expend  their  private  fortunes  in  reducing  their 
insurgent  liegemen  ;  the  colonial  oligarchy,  which  they 
favored,  was  too  feeble  a  minority  to  conduct  the 


SOUTH   CAROLINA.  15 

government ;  and  the  people  were  forbidden  by  law  to  CHAP. 
take  care  of  themselves.     To  this  were  added  the  evils  ^-^ 
of  an  uncertain  boundary  on  the  south,  and  of  disor- 
dered finances. 

All  the  acts  of  the  democratic  legislature  were  1692 
rejected  by  the  proprietaries  ;  while,  as  a  remedy  for 
anarchy,  Philip  Ludwell,  a  moderate  adherent  of 
Berkeley,  once  collector  of  customs  in  Virginia,  a  man  MS. 
of  a  candid  mind,  a  complainant  in  England  against 
Effingham,  and  since  1689  governor  of  North  Carolina, 
was  sent  to  establish  order  and  the  supremacy  of  the 
proprietaries.  But  he  had  power  to  inquire  into 
grievances,  not  to  redress  them.  Disputes  respecting 
quitrents  and  the  tenure  of  lands  continued ;  and, 
after  floating  for  a  year  between  the  wishes  of  his 
employers  and  the  necessities  of  the  colonists,  Ludwell 
gladly  withdrew  into  Virginia. 

A  concession  followed.  In  April,  1693,  the  pro-  1693 
prietaries  voted  "  That,  as  the  people  have  declared 
they  would  rather  be  governed  by  the  powers  granted 
by  the  charter,  without  regard  to  the  fundamental  con- 
stitutions, it  will  be  for  their  quiet,  and  for  the  pro- 
tection of  the  well-disposed,  to  grant  their  request." 
So  perished  the  legislation  of  Shaftesbury  and  Locke. 
It  had  been  promulgated  as  immortal,  and,  having 
never  gained  life  in  the  colony,  was,  within  a  quarter 
of  a  century,  abandoned  by  the  proprietaries  them- 
selves. Palatines,  landgraves,  and  caciques,  "  the  no- 
bility "  of  the  Carolina  statute-book,  were  doomed  to 
pass  away 

On  the  abrogation  of  the  constitutions,  Thomas 
Smith  was  by  the  proprietaries  appointed  governor. 
The  system  of  biennial  assemblies,  which,  with  slight 
changes,  still  endures,  was  immediately  instituted  by 


16  SOUTH   CAROLINA. 

CHAP,  the  people ;  but,  as  the  political  opinions  of  Smith 

-  were  at  variance  with  those  of  the  majority,  his  per- 

1693.  sonal  virtues  could  not  conciliate  for  him  confidence. 
Despairing  of  success,  he  proposed  that  one  of  the 

1694  proprietaries  should  visit  Carolina,  with  ample  powers 
alike  of  inquiry  and  of  redress. 

The  advice  pleased  ;  and  the  grandson  of  Shaftes- 
bury,  the  pupil  and  antagonist  of  Locke,  was  elected 
dictator.  He  declined ;  and  the  choice  fell  upon 
John  Archdale,  an  honest  member  of  the  society  of 
Friends. 

The  disputes  in  South  Carolina  had  grown  out  of 
the  selfish  zeal  of  a  High  Church  oligarchy,  sustained 
by  the  proprietaries,  in  opposition  to  the  great  body  of 
the  freemen.  Now  the  peaceful  Archdale,  the  medi- 
ator between  the  factions,  was  himself,  as  a  dissenter, 
pledged  to  freedom  of  conscience.  Yet  his  powers 

1695  Permitted  him  to  infuse  candor  into  his  administration, 
Aug.  rather  than  into  the  constitution  of  Carolina.     Not 

rejecting  the  best  men  of  "  the  party  of  high  pretended 
Churchmen,  that  had  lain  latent  from  the  beginning  " 
of  the  colony,  and  conscious  that  "dissenters  could 
kill  wolves  and  bears,  fell  treqp,  and  clear  ground, 
as  well  as  Churchmen  ;  "  acteiowledging  that  emi- 
grants should  ever  expect  "  an  enlargement  of  their  na- 
tive rights  in  a  wilderness  country," — he  selected  for 
the  council  two  men  of  the  moderate  party  to  one  High 
Churchman.  Thus  the  balance  of  power  was  in  har- 
mony with  colonial  opinion.  By  remitting  quitrents 
for  three  and  for  four  years,  by  regulating  the  price  of 
land  and  the  form  of  conveyances,  by  giving  the  planter 
the  option  of  paying  quitrents  in  money  or  in  the  prod- 
ucts of  the  country,  he  quieted  the  jarrings  between 
the  colonists  and  their  feudal  sovereigns.  To  cultivate 


SOUTH   CAROLINA.  17 

friendsmp  with  the  Indians,  he  established  a  board  to  CHAP. 
decide  all  contests  between  them  and  the  white  men.  ~- ^ 
The  natives  round  Cape  Fear  obtained  protection 
against  kidnappers,  and  requited  this  security  by  kind- 
ness towards  mariners  shipwrecked  on  their  coast. 
The  government  was  organized  as  it  had  been  in 
Maryland,  the  proprietaries  appointing  the  council, 
the  people  electing  the  house  of  assembly.  The  de- 
fence of  the  colony  rested  on  the  militia.  With  the 
Spaniards  at  St.  Augustine  friendly  relations  sprung  up : 
a  Quaker  could  respect  the  faith  of  a  Papist.  Four 
Indians,  converts  of  the  Spanish  priests,  captives  to  the 
Yammasees,  and  exposed  to  sale  as  slaves,  were  ran- 
somed by  Archdale,  and  sent  to  the  governor  of  St. 
Augustine.  "  I  shall  manifest  reciprocal  kindness," 
was  his  reply,  "  and  shall  always  observe  a  good  cor- 
respondence with  you  ;  "  and,  when  an  English  vessel 
was  wrecked  on  Florida,  the  Spaniards  retaliated  the 
benevolence  of  Archdale. 

The  fame  of  Carolina,  the  American  Canaan,  that 
flowed  with  milk  and  honey,  began  to  increase.     The 
industrious  Scotch,  zealous  alike  for  liberty  and  prop- 
erty, were  soon  to  be  attracted.    Already  New  England  1696 
men  were  allured  to  the  region  that  now  "  stood  cir-     %™ 
cumstanced  with  the  honor  of  a  true  English  govern-    Arch. 
ment,  zealous  for  the  increase  of  virtue,  as  well  as 
outwa  d  trade  and  business."    And  the  representatives 
of  the  freemen  of  the  colony  declared  that  Archdale, 
*  by  his  wisdom,  patience,  and  labor,  had  laid  a  firm 
foundation  for  a  most  glorious  superstructure." 

Immediately  after  the  return  of  the  Quaker  legisla- 
tor, the  Huguenots  were  once  more  and  successfully 
enfranchised  by  the  colonial  legislature.     Liberty  of  1697 
conscience  was  also  conferred  on  all  Christians,  unhap-     30 

VOL.    III.  3 


18  SOUTH   CAROLINA. 

CHAP,  pily  with  the  exception  of  Papists.     This  was  the  first 
-  ~  act  in  Carolina  disfranchising  religious  opinion. 

Soon  after  Archdale  reached  England,  the  work  of 

1698.  proprietary  legislation  was  renewed.     The  new  code 
asserted  the  favorite  maxim  of  the  reformers  of  that 
day,  that  "  all  power  and  dominion  are  most  naturally 
founded   in  property."     But   this    maxim,  which,  in 
England,  was,  in  the  progress  of  freedom,  a  conquest 
of  commercial  industry  over  the  pride  of  birth,  was, 
with  the  laws  resting  on  it,  rejected  in  Carolina.     The 

1702  Journals  °f  the  provincial  assembly  show  that,  after 
they  had  been  read  and.  debated,  paragraph  by  para- 
graPn>  the  question  of  ordering  them  to  a  second 
reading  was  carried  in  the  negative.  Carolina  refused 
alike  an  hereditary  nobility  and  the  dominion  of 
wealth. 

The  colonial  oligarchy  next  looked  for  favor  to  an 
exclusive  religion  of  state.     Even  the  consent  of  non- 

1699.  conformists  had  been  given  to  the  public  maintenance 
8iM35S  °f  one  mmister  °f  the  Church  of  England  ;  and  ortho- 
1703.  doxy  had,  as  in  nearly  every  colony,  been  protected  by 
17*04!  the  menace  of  disfranchisement  and  prisons.     In  1704, 
statutes  "  the  high  pretended  Churchmen,"  having,  by  the  arts 

197.  '  Of  Nathaniel  Johnson,  gained  a  majority  of  one  in  an 
Arch-  assembly  representing  a  colony  of  which  two  thirds 
were  dissenters,  abruptly  disfranchised  them  all,  and, 
after  the  English  precedent,  gave  to  the  Church  of 
England  a  monopoly  of  political  power.  The  council, 
no  longer  composed  on  the  principles  of  Archdale, 
joined  in  the  eager  assent  of  the  governor.  In  the 
court  of  the  proprietaries,  Archdale  opposed  the  bill  ; 
but  Lord  Granville,  the  palatine,  an  opponent  to  occa- 
sional conformity,  scorned  the  gentle  remonstrances  of 
the  Quaker.  "  You,"  said  he,  "  are  of  one  opinion  ; 


XIX. 


Oldraix- 

011,   1. 

486. 


SOUTH   CAROLINA.  19 

I  of  another  ;  and  our  lives  may  not  be  long  enough  CHAP. 
to  end  the  controversy.     I  am  for  this  bill,  and  this  is 
the  party  that  I  will  head  and  countenance."     Dis- 
senters having  thus  been  excluded  from  the  house  of 
commons,  the  Church  of  England  was  easily  established    NOV. 
by  law.     At  the  same  time,  a  body  of  lay  commission- 
ers  was   nominated  by  the   oligarchy  from   its  own 
number,  to   supersede    the  authority  of  the    bishop. 
Thus  the  intolerant  spirit  which  persecuted  dissenters 
assumed  "  a  haughty  dominion  over  the  clergy  itself." 
The  dissenters,  excluded  from  the  colonial  legisla- 
ture, rejected   with   contumely  by  the    proprietaries,  Daicho, 
appealed  to  the  house  of  lords,  where  the  spirit  of 
Somers  prevailed.     An  address  to  the  queen,  in  behalf  March 
of  the  dissenters  of  Carolina,  was  adopted  ;  the  lords 


of  trade  and  plantations  reported  that  the  proprietaries 
had  forfeited  their  charter,  and  advised  its  recall  by  a 
judicial  process  ;  the  intolerant  acts  were,  by  royal 
authority,  declared  null  and  void.  In  November  of  the 
same  year,  they  were  repealed  by  the  colonial  assem- 
bly  ;  but,  while  dissenters  were  tolerated,  and  could  282-295 
share  political  power,  the  Church  of  England  was  im- 
mediately established  as  the  religion  of  the  province. 

This  compromise  continued  till  the  revolution. 
Meantime,  the  authority  of  the  proprietaries  was 
tainted  by  the  declaration  of  the  queen,  and  the  opin- 
ion of  English  lawyers.  Strifes  ensued  perpetually 
respecting  quitrents  and  finances  ;  and,  as  the  proprie- 
taries provided  no  sufficient  defence  for  the  colony, 
their  power,  which  had  no  guaranty  even  in  their  own 
interests,  and  still  less  in  the  policy  of  the  English 
government,  or  the  good  will  of  the  colonists,  awaited 
only  an  opportunity  to  expire. 

This  period  of  turbulence  and  insurrection,  of  angry 


20  NORTH   CAROLINA. 

CHAP,  factions  and  popular  excitements,  was  nevertheless  a 

"Y  TAT 

-*v^  period  of  prosperity.  The  country  rapidly  increased 
in  population  and  the  value  of  its  exports.  The  pro- 
lific rice-plant  had,  at  a  very  early  period,  been  intro- 
duced from  Madagascar;  in  1691,  the  legislature  was 
already  busy  in  rewarding  the  invention  of  new  methods 
for  cleansing  it ;  its  culture  steadily  increased ;  and  the 
rice  of  Carolina  was  esteemed  the  best  in  the  world. 
Hence  the  opulence  of  the  colony ;  hence,  also,  its 
swarms  of  negro  slaves.  The  profits  of  the  rice-fields 
tempted  the  planter  to  enlarge  his  domains,  and  Africa 
furnished  laborers. 

The  cereal  grasses  were  ill  adapted  to  the  sands  near 
the  sea,  or  the  alluvial  swamps.  The  woods  were 
•more  inviting.  Early  in  the  eighteenth  century,  the 
Carolina  Indian  trader  had  penetrated  a  thousand  miles 
into  the  interior  The  skins  of  bears,  beaver,  wildcats, 
deer,  foxes,  and  raccoons,  invited  commerce.  The  oak 
was  cleft  into  staves  for  the  West  Indies :  the  trunk 
of  the  pine  was  valued  for  masts,  boards,  and  joists ; 
its  juices  yielded  turpentine  ;  from  the  same  tree,  when 
dry,  fire  extracted  tar. 

But  naval  stores  were  still  more  the  produce  of 
North  Carolina,  where,  as  yet,  slaves  were  very  few, 
and  the  lonely  planters,  under  their  mild  sky,  mingled 
a  leisurely  industry  with  the  use  of  the  fowling-piece. 
While  the  world  was  set  on  fire  by  wars  of  unparalleled 
extent,  the  unpolished  inhabitants  of  North  Carolina 
multiplied  and  spread  in  the  enjoyment  of  the  highest 
personal  liberty.  Five  miles  below  Edenton,  just  a 
hundred  yards  from  the  sound,  beneath  the  shade  of  a 
large  cedar,  the  stone  that  marks  the  grave  of  Hender- 
son Walker  keeps  the  record  that  "  North  Carolina, 
during  his  administration,  enjoyed  tranquillity."  This 


NORTH   CAROLINA.  21 

is  the  history  of  four  years  in  which  the  people,  CHAP. 
without  molestation,  enjoyed  their  wild  independ-  ~~*^- 
ence.  It  was  the  liberty  of  freemen  in  the  woods. 
"  North  Carolina,"  like  ancient  Rome,  was  famed 
"  as  the  sanctuary  of  runaways  ;  "  seventy  years  after 
its  orif  in,  Spotswood  describes  it  as  "a  country  where 
there's  scarce  any  form  of  government  ;  "  and  it  long 
continued  to  be  said,  with  but  slight  exaggeration, 
that  "  in  Carolina,  every  one  did  what  was  right  in 
his  own  eyes,  paying  tribute  neither  to  God  nor  to 
C?esar." 

In  such  a  country,  which  was  almost  an  utter  stran- 
ger to  any  public  worship,  among  a  people  made  up  of 
Presbyterians  and  Independents,  of  Lutherans  and 
Quakers,  of  men  who  drew  their  politics,  their  faith, 
and  their  law  from  the  light  of  nature,  —  where,  ac- 
cording to  the  royalists,  the  majority  "  were  Quakers, 
atheists,  deists,  and  other  evil-disposed  persons,"  —  the 
pious  zeal  or  the  bigotry  of  the  proprietaries,  selecting 
Robert  Daniel,  the  deputy-governor,  as  the  fit  instru-  1704 
ment,  resolved  on  establishing  the  Church  of  England. 
The  legislature,  chosen  without  reference  to  this  end, 
after  much  opposition,  acceded  to  the  design;  and 
further  enacted  that  no  one,  who  would  not  take  the 
oath  prescribed  by  law,  should  hold  a  place  of  trust  in 
the  colony.  Then  did  North  Carolina  first  gain  expe- 
rience of  disfranchisements  for  opinions  ;  then  did  it 
first  hear  of  glebes,  and  a  clergy  ;  then  were  churches 
first  ordered  to  be  erected  at  the  public  cost.  But  a 
people  does  not  bend  in  a  generation  :  the  laws  could 
not  be  enforced  ;  and,  six  years  afterwards,  the  people 
still  "  labored  under  such  a  total  absence  of  religion, 
that  there  was  but  one  clergyman  in  the  whole  coun-  Spota. 
try."  The  Quakers,  led  by  their  faith,  were  foremost 


22  NORTH   CAROLINA. 

CHAP,  in   opposition.     They  were  "  not  only  the  principal 

^v^  fomenters  of  the  distractions  in  Carolina,"  but  the 
governor  of  the  Old  Dominion  complained  that  they 
"  made  it  their  business  to  instil  the  like  pernicious 
notions  into  the  minds  of  his  majesty's  subjects  in 
Virginia,  and  to  justify  the  mad  actions  of  the  rabble 
by  arguments  destructive  to  all  government." 

1705.  On  a  vacancy  in  the  office  of  governor,  anarchy  pre- 
vailed. "  The  North  had  been  usually  governed  by  a 
deputy,  appointed  by  the  governor  of  South  Carolina," 
and  Thomas  Cary  obtained  a  commission  in  the  wonted 
form.  The  proprietaries  disapproved  the  appointment, 
and  gave  leave  to  the  little  oligarchy  of  their  own 
deputies  to  elect  the  chief  magistrate.  Their  choice 
fell  on  William  Glover  ;  and  the  colony  was  forthwith 
rent  with  divisions.  On  the  one  side  were  Churchmen 
and  royalists,  the  immediate  friends  of  the  proprieta- 
ries ;  on  the  other,  "  a  rabble  of  profligate  persons," 
that  is,  the  Quakers  and  other  dissenters,  and  that 
majority  of  the  people  which  was  unconsciously  swayed 
by  democratic  instincts.  Each  party  had  its  governor  ; 
each  elected  its  house  of  representatives.  Neither 

1710.  could  entirely  prevail.  The  one  wanted  a  legal  sanc- 
tion, the  other  popular  favor  ;  and,  as  "it  had  been  the 

woodi  common  practice  for  them  in  North  Carolina  to  resist 
.  and  imprison  their  governors,"  till  they  came  "  to  look 
upon  that  as  lawful  which  had  been  so  long  tolerated," 
the  party  of  the  proprietaries  was  easily  "  trodden  under 
foot."  "  The  Quakers  were  a  numerous  people  there, 
and,  having  been  fatally  trusted  with  a  large  share  in 
the  administration  of  that  government,"  were  resolved 

17  10-  a  to  maintain  themselves  therein."     To  restore  order, 

'  Edward  Hyde  was  despatched  to  govern  the  province  ; 

but  he  was  to  receive  his  commission  as  deputy  from 


NORTH  CAROLINA.  23 

Tynte,  the  governor  of  the  southern  division ;  and,  as  CHAP. 
Tynte  had  already  fallen  a  victim  to  the  climate,  Hyde  j^Ycf 
could  show  no  evidence  of  his  right,  except  private  mi. 
letters  from  the  proprietaries  ;  and  u  the  respect  due  to 
his  birth  could  avail  nothing  on  that  mutinous  people." 
Affairs  grew  worse  than  ever  ;  for  the  legislature  which 
he  convened,  having  been  elected  under  forms  which, 
in  the  eyes  of  his  opponents,  tainted  the  whole  action 
with  illegality,  showed  no  desire  to  heal  by  prudence 
the  distractions  of  the  country,  but,  blinded  by  zeal 
for  revenge,  made  passionate  enactments,  "  of  which 
they  themselves  had  not  power  to  enforce  the  execu- 
tion," and  which,  in  Virginia,  even  royalists  condemned 
as  unjustifiably  severe.  At  once  "  the  true  spirit  of 
Quakerism  appeared  "  in  an  open  disobedience  to  un- 
just laws :  Gary  and  some  of  his  friends  took  up  arms ; 
it  was  rumored  that  they  were  ready  for  an  alliance 
with  the  Indians  ;  and  Spots  wood,  an  experienced  sol- 
dier, now  governor  of  Virginia,  was  summoned  by  Hyde 
as  an  ally.  The  loyalty  of  the  veteran  was  embarrassed. 
He  could  not  esteem  "  a  country  safe  which  had  in  it 
such  dangerous  incendiaries."  He  believed  that,  unless 
"  measures  were  taken  to  discourage  the  mutinous 
spirits,  who  had  become  so  audacious  as  to  take  up 
arms,  it  would  prove  a  dangerous  example  to  the  rest 
of  her  majesty's  plantations."  But  "  the  difficulties  of 
marching  forces  into  a  country  so  cut  with  rivers,  were 
almost  insuperable  ; "  there  were  no  troops  but  the 
militia ;  the  counties  bordering  on  Carolina  were 
"  stocked  with  Quakers,"  or,  at  least,  with  "  the  arti- 
cles of  those  people  ;  "  and  the  governor  of  Virginia 
might  almost  as  well  have  undertaken  a  military  expe- 
dition against  foxes  and  raccoons,  or  have  attempted 
to  enforce  religious  uniformity  among  the  conies,  as 


24  NORTH  CAROLINA. 

CHAP,  employ  methods  of  invasion  against  a  people  whose 

— ^-  dwellings  were  so  sheltered  by  creeks,  so  hidden  by 
forests,  so  protected  by  solitudes.  The  insurgent 
people  "  obstructed  the  course  of  justice,  demanding 
the  dissolution  of  the  assembly,  and  the  repeal  of  all 
laws  they  disliked."  Spotswood  could  only  send  a 
party  of  marines  from  the  guard-ships,  as  evidence  of 
his  disposition.  No  effusion  of  blood  followed.  Gary, 
and  the  leaders  of  his  party,  on  the  contrary,  boldly 
appeared  in  Virginia,  for  the  purpose,  as  they  said,  of 
appealing  to  England  in  defence  of  their  actions ;  and 
Spotswood  compelled  them  to  take  their  passage  in 
the  men-of-war  that  were  just  returning.  But  North 
Carolina  remained  as  before  ;  its  burgesses,  obeying 
the  popular  judgment,  "refused  to  make  provision  for 
to  defending  any  part  of  their  country,"  unless  "they 
"  could  introduce  into  the  government  the  persons  most 
obnoxious  for  the  late  rebellion ; "  and  therefore  the 

1p1b2'  assembly  was  promptly  dissolved.  There  was  little 
hope  of  harmony  between  the  proprietaries  and  the 
people  of  North  Carolina. 

But  here,  as  elsewhere  in  America,  this  turbulence 
•  of  freedom  did  not  check  the  increase  of  population. 
Notwithstanding  the  contradictory  accounts,  the  prov- 
ince, from  its  first  permanent  settlement  by  white  men, 
has  constantly  been  advancing,  and  has,  I  think,  always 
exceeded  South  Carolina  in  numbers.  The  country 

1710.  between  the  Trent  and  the  Neuse  was  occupied  ;  and 
at  the  confluence  of  those  rivers,  where  sands  abound 
instead  of  glaciers,  and  a  wide  champaign  instead  of 
highlands  and  mountains,  emigrants  from  Switzerland 
began  the  settlement  of  New  Berne.  Germans,  also, 
fugitives  from  the  devastated  Palatinate,  found  a  home 
in  the  same  vicinity.  In  these  early  days,  few  negroes 


VIRGINIA.  25 

were  introduced  into  the  colony.    Its  trade  was  chiefly  CHAP, 
engrossed  by  New  England.    The  increasing  expenses  -^^ 
of  the  government  amounted,  in  1714,  to  nine  hundred 
pounds.     While  the  people  were  establishing  a  com- 
monwealth, the  surplus  revenue  to  the  proprietaries,  by 
sales  of  land  and  the  quitrents  from  their  boundless 
domains,  was  but  one  hundred  and  sixty-nine  pounds, 
or  twenty  guineas  to  each  proprietary.     Such  was  the 
profit  from  the  ownership  of  a  wilderness. 

For  Virginia,  the  revolution  gave  to  her  liberties  the 
regularity  of  law ;  in  other  respects,  the  character  of 
her  people  and  the  forms  of  her  government  were  not 
changed.  The  first  person  who,  in  the  reign  of  King 
William,  entered  the  Ancient  Dominion  as  lieutenant- 
governor,  was  the  same  Francis  Nicholson  who,  in  the 
days  of  King  James,  had  been  the  deputy  of  Andros 
for  the  consolidated  provinces  of  the  north,  and  had 
been  expelled  from  New  York  by  the  insurgent  people ; 
and  his  successor  was  Andros  himself,  fresh  from  im-  1692 
prisonment  in  Massachusetts.  The  earlier  administra- 
tion of  the  ardent  but  narrow-minded  Nicholson  was 
signalized  by  the  establishment  of  the  college  of  Wil- 
liam and  Mary,  the  first  fruits  of  the  revolution,  in  age 
second  only  to  Harvard  ;  at  the  instance  of  the  learned 
and  persevering  commissary  Blair,  whose  zeal  for  future 
generations  was  aided  by  subscriptions,  by  a  gift  of 
qviitrents  from  the  king,  by  an  endowment  from  the 
royal  domain,  and  by  a  tax  of  a  penny  a  pound  on 
tobacco  exported  to  other  plantations.  To  the  care  of 
Andros  the  historical  inquirer  owes  the  preservation  of 
those  few  early  papers  of  Virginia  which  have  escaped 
official  neglect,  fires,  time,  and  civil  wars ;  but  neither 
from  them  nor  from  their  successors  was  there  hope 
of  an  enlargement  of  civil  freedom. 

VOL.   III.  4 


26  VIRGINIA. 

CHAP.  The  powers  of  the  governor  were  exorbitant  ;  he 
-  ^  was  at  once  lieutenant-general  and  admiral,  lord  treas- 
urer and  chancellor,  the  chief  judge  in  all  courts 
president  of  the  council,  and  bishop,  or  ordinary  ;  so 
that  the  armed  force,  the  revenue,  the  interpretation 
of  law,  the  administration  of  justice,  the  church,  —  all 
were  under  his  control  or  guardianship. 

The  checks  on  his  power  existed  in  his  instructions, 
in  the  council,  and  in  the  general  assembly.  But  the 
instructions  were  kept  secret  ;  and,  besides,  they  rather 
confirmed  his  prerogatives.  The  members  of  the  coun- 
cil owed  their  appointment  to  his  recommendation, 
their  continuance  to  his  pleasure,  and,  moreover,  looked 
to  him  for  advancement  to  places  of  profit.  The 
assembly  was  restrained  by  the  prospect  of  a  negative 
from  the  governor  and  from  the  crown,  was  compelled 
to  solicit  the  concurrence  of  the  council,  was  exposed 
to  influence  from  royal  patronage,  was  watched  in  its 
actions  by  a  clerk  whom  the  governor  appointed,  and 
was  always  sure  of  being  dissolved  if  complaints  began 
to  grow  loud  or  opposition  too  ardent.  It  had,  more- 
over, lost  the  method  of  resistance  best  suited  to  the 
times,  since,  in  addition  to  quitrents,  a  former  legisla- 
ture had  already  established  a  perpetual  revenue. 

Yet  the  people  of  Virginia  still  found  methods  of 
nourishing  the  spirit  of  independence.  The  permanent 
revenue  was  sure  to  be  exhausted  on  the  governor  and 
his  favorites  ;  when  additional  supplies  became  neces- 
sary, the  burgesses,  as  in  Jamaica  and  in  other  colonies, 
claimed  the  right  of  nominating  a  treasurer  of  their 
own,  subject  to  their  orders,  without  further  warrant 
from  the  governor.  The  statutes  of  Virginia  show 


As.  '  that    the   first  assembly  after  the  revolution  set  this 
1691.  example,  which  was  often  imitated.     The  denial  of 


VIRGINIA.  27 

this  system  by  the  crown  increased  the  aversion  to  CHAP 
raising  money ;  so  that  Virginia  refused  to  contribute  -^^ 
its  quota  to  the  defence  of  the  colonies  against  France, 
and  not  only  disregarded  the  special  orders  for  assisting 
Albany,  but  with  entire  unanimity,  and  even  with 
the  assent  of  the  council,  justified  its  disobedience. 
While  other  provinces  were  exhausted  by  taxation,  in 
nleven  years,  eighty-three  pounds  of  tobacco  for  each 
poll  was  the  total  sum  levied  by  all  the  special  acts  of  1707 
the  assembly  of  Virginia.  1718 

The  very  existence  of  the  forms  of  representation 
led  to  comparison.  Virginia  was  conscious  of  its  im- 
portance to  the  mother  country ;  and  its  inhabitants, 
long  aware  that  their  liberties  were  less  than  those  of 
New  England,  were  put  "  upon  a  nice  inquiry  into  the 
circumstances  of  the  government."  England  also  pro- 
voked a  generous  rivalry.  "  The  assembly  concluded 
itself  entitled  to  all  the  rights  and  privileges  of  an 
English  parliament ; "  and  the  records  of  the  house 
of  commons  were  examined  in  search  of  precedents 
favorable  to  legislative  freedom. 

The  constitution  of  the  Church  in  Virginia  cherished 
colonial  freedom;  for  the  act  of  1642,  which  estab- 
lished it,  reserved  the  right  of  presentation  to  the 
parish.  The  license  of  the  bishop  of  London,  and  the 
recommendation  of  the  governor,  availed,  therefore,  but 
little.  Sometimes  the  parish  rendered  the  establish- 
ment nugatory  by  its  indolence  of  action  ;  sometimes 
the  minister,  if  acceptable  to  the  congregation,  was 
received,  but  not  presented.  It  was  the  general  custom 
to  hire  the  minister  from  year  to  year.  A  legal  opinibn  1703 
was  obtained  from  England,  that  the  minister  is  an  ^JET 
incumbent  for  life,  and  cannot  be  displaced  by  his 
parishioners  ;  but  the  vestry  kept  themselves  the 


28  VIRGINIA. 

CHAP,  parson's  master  by  preventing  his  induction,  so  that  he 

'"  acquired  no  freehold  in  his  living,  and  might  be  re- 

^89.'  moved  at  pleasure.  Nor  was  the  character  of  the 
clergy  who  came  over  always  suited  to  win  affection  or 
respect.  The  parishes,  moreover,  were  of  such  length, 
that  some  lived  fifty  miles  from  the  parish  church ;  and 
che  assembly  would  not  increase  the  taxes  by  changing 
5S23"  the  bounds,  even  from  fear  of  impending  "  paganism, 
atheism,  or  sectaries."  "  Schism  "  threatened  "  to 
creep  into  the  Church,"  and  to  generate  "  faction  in  the 
civil  government ;  "  and  when  Virginia  and  the  crown 
came  to  a  first  violent  collision,  the  strife  related  to  the 
rights  of  "  the  parsons." 

But  the  greatest  safeguard  of  liberty  in  Virginia  was 
the  individual  freedom  of  mind,  which  formed,  of 
necessity,  the  characteristic  of  independent  landholders 
living  apart  on  their  plantations.  In  the  age  of  com- 
mercial monopoly,  Virginia  had  not  one  market  town, 
not  one  place  of  trade.  "  As  to  outward  appearance, 
it  looked  all  like  a  wild  desert ;  "  and  the  mercantile 
world,  founding  its  judgment  on  the  absence  of  cities, 
regarded  it  as  "  one  of  the  poorest,  miserablest,  and 
worst  countries  in  all  America."  It  did  not  seek  to 
share  actively  in  the  profits  of  commerce  ;  it  had  little 
of  the  precious  metals,  and  still  less  of  credit ;  it  was 
satisfied  with  agriculture.  Taxes  were  paid  in  tobacco ; 
remittances  to  Europe  were  made  in  tobacco ;  the  rev- 
enue of  the  clergy,  and  the  magistrates,  and  the  colony, 
was  collected  in  the  same  currency ;  the  colonial  trades- 
man received  his  pay  in  straggling  parcels  of  it ;  and 
sttips  from  abroad  were  obliged  to  lie  whole  months  in  the 
rivers,  before  boats,  visiting  the  several  plantations  on 
their  banks,  could  pick  up  a  cargo.  In  the  season  of  a 
commercial  revolution,  the  commercial  element  did  not 


VIRGINIA.  29 

enter  into  the  character  of  the  colony.  Its  inhabitants  CHAP 
"  daily  grew  more  and  more  averse  to  cohabitation."  ~^v^ 
All  royalists  and  Churchmen  as  they  were  by  ancestry, 
habit,  and  established  law,  they  reasoned  boldly  in 
their  seclusion,  making  then*  own  good  pleasure  their 
rule  of  conduct.  "  Pernicious  notions,  fatal  to  the  1703 
royal  prerogative,  were  improving  daily  ; "  and,  though  Quarry 
Virginia  protested  against  the  charge  of  "  republican- 
ism," as  an  unfounded  reproach,  yet  colonial  opinion, 
the  offspring  of  free  inquiry,  which  seclusion  awakened, 
the  woods  sheltered,  and  the  self-will  of  slaveholders 
fortified,  was  more  than  a  counterpoise  to  the  preroga- 
tive of  the  British  crown.  In  former  ages,  no  colony 
had  ever  enjoyed  a  happier  freedom.  From  the  days 
of  the  insurrection  of  Bacon,  for  a  period  of  three  quar- 
ters of  a  century,  Virginia  possessed  uninterrupted 
peace.  On  its  own  soil,  the  strife  with  the  Indians 
was  ended ;  the  French  hesitated  to  invade  the  western 
frontier,  on  which  they  lowered:  if  sometimes  alarm 
was  spread  by  privateers  upon  the  coast,  a  naval  foe 
was  not  attracted  to  a  region  which  had  neither  town 
nor  magazines,  where  there  was  nothing  to  destroy  but 
a  field  of  tobacco,  nothing  to  plunder  but  the  frugal 
stores  of  scattered  plantations.  The  soil  was  stained 
by  nothing  but  the  sweat  of  the  laborer.  In  such 
scenes  of  tranquil  happiness,  the  political  strifes  were 
but  the  fitful  ebullitions  of  a  high  spirit,  which,  in  the 
wantonness  of  independence,  loved  to  tease  the  gov- 
ernor ;  and,  again,  if  the  burgesses  expressed  loyalty, 
they  were  loyal  only  because  loyalty  was  their  humor. 
Hence  the  reports  forwarded  to  England  were  often 
contradictory.  "  This  government,"  wrote  Spotswood, 
in  1711,  "is  in  perfect  peace  and  tranquillity,  under  a 
due  obedience  to  the  royal  authority,  and  a  gentlemanly 


30  MARYLAND. 

CHAP  conformity  to  the  Church  of  England  ;  "  and  the  letter 
^^  had  hardly  left  the  Chesapeake  before  he  found  himself 
thwarted  by  the  impracticable  burgesses,  dissolving 
the  assembly,  and  fearing  to  convene  another  till  opin- 
ion should  change.  But  Spotswood,  the  best  in  the 
line  of  Virginia  governors,  was  soon  restored  to  colonial 
favor.  Like  schoolboys  of  old  at  a  barring  out,  the 
Virginians  resisted  their  government,  not  as  ready  for 
independence,  but  as  resolved  on  a  holiday. 

The  English  revolution  was  a  "  Protestant  "  revolu- 
tion :  of  the  Roman  Catholic  proprietary  of  Maryland 
it  sequestered  the  authority,  while  it  protected  the 
fortunes. 

During  the  absence  of  Lord  Baltimore  from  his  prov- 
ince, his  powers  had  been  delegated  to  nine  deputies, 
over  whom  William  Joseph  presided.  The  spirit  that 
swayed  their  counsels  sprung  from  the  doctrine  of  legit- 
imacy, which  the  revolution  had  prostrated ;  and  they 
fell  with  it.  Distrusting  the  people,  they  provoked  op- 
position by  demanding  of  the  assembly,  as  a  qualification 
of  its  members,  an  oath  of  fidelity  to  the  proprietary. 
On  resistance  to  the  illegal  demand,  the  house  was 
prorogued ;  and,  even  after  the  successful  invasion  of 
England  became  known,  the  deputies  of  Lord  Balti- 
more hesitated  to  proclaim  the  new  sovereigns. 
1689  The  delay  gave  birth  to  an  armed  association  for 
pn  asserting  the  right  of  King  William  ;  and  the  deputies 
were  easily  driven  to  a  garrison  on  the  south  side  of 
Patuxent  River,  about  two  miles  above  its  mouth. 
There  they  capitulated,  obtaining  security  for  them- 
selves,  and  yielding  their  assent  to  the  exclusion  of 
Papists  from  all  provincial  offices.  A  convention  of 
the.  associates,  "for  the  defence  of  the  Protestant 
religion,"  assumed  the  government,  and,  in  an  address 


MARYLAND.  31 

to  King  William,  denounced  the  influence  of  Jesuits,  CHAP, 

the  prevalence  of  Popish  idolatry,  the  connivance  by '- 

the  government  at  murders  of  Protestants,  and  the 
danger  from  plots  with  the  French  and  Indians. 

The  privy  council,  after  a  debate  on  the  address, 
advised  the  forfeiture  of  the  charter  by  a  process  of 
law ;  but  King  William,  heedless  of  the  remonstrances 
of  the  proprietary,  who  could  be  convicted  of  no  crime  I69i. 
but  his  creed,  and  impatient  of  judicial  forms,  by  his     ™e 
own  power  constituted  Maryland  a  royal  government. 
The  arbitrary  act  was  sanctioned  by  a  legal  opinion 
from  Lord  Holt.     In  1692,  Sir  Lionel  Copley  arrived  1692 
with   a  royal    commission,  dissolved   the   convention, 
assumed  the  government,  and  convened  an  assembly. 
Its  first  act  recognized  William  and  Mary ;  its  second 
established  the  Church  of  England  as  the  religion  of 
the  state,  to  be  supported  by  general  taxation.     Thus 
were  the  barons  of  Baltimore  superseded  for  a  genera- 
tion.    The  ancient  capital,  inconvenient  in  its  site, 
was,  moreover,  tenanted  chiefly  by  Catholics,  and  sur- 
rounded by  proprietary  recollections  :  under  Protestant 
auspices,  the  city  sacred  to  the  Virgin  Mary  was  aban-  1694 
doned,  and  Annapolis  became  the  seat  of  government. 
The  system  of  a  religion  of  state,  earnestly  advanced 
by  the  boastful  eagerness  of  Francis  Nicholson,  who     to 
passed  from  Virginia  to  the  government  of  Maryland,  1698 
and  by  the  patient,  the  disinterested,  but  unhappily  too 
exclusive  earnestness  of  the  commissary  Thomas  Bray, 
became  the  settled  policy  of  the  government.     The 
first  act,  as  it  had  contained  a  clause  giving  validity  in  1692 
the  colony  to  the  Great  Charter  of  England,  was  not 
accepted  by  the  crown.     Again,  in  1696,  the  inviolable 
claim  of  the  colony  to  English  rights  and  liberties  was 
engrafted  by  the  assembly  on  the  act  of  establishment ; 


32  MARYLAND. 

CHAP,  and  this  also  was  disallowed.     Jn  1700,  the  presence 

—  ~  and  personal  virtues  of  Bray,  who  saw  Christianity 
only  in  the  English  Church,  obtained  by  unanimity  a 
law  commanding  conformity  in  every  "  place  of  public 
worship."  Once  more  the  act  was  rejected  in  Eng- 
land from  regard  to  the  rights  of  Protestant  dissenters  ; 

1702.  and  when,  at  last,  Episcopacy  was  established  by 
the  colonial  legislature,  and  the  right  of  appointment 
and  induction  secured  to  the  governor,  the  English  acts 
of  toleration  were  at  the  same  time  put  in  force.  Thus 
was  a  religion  of  state  established  in  Maryland,  as 
well  as  in  Virginia.  In  the  latter  province,  the  right  of 
presentation  remained  with  the  parish  ;  in  the  former, 
with  the  governor.  In  Virginia,  sectaries  found  no 
favor  from  the  law  ;  in  Maryland,  they  were  tolerated. 
Protestant  dissent  was,  therefore,  safe  ;  for  the  diffi- 
culty of  obtaining  English  missionaries,  the  remoteness 
of  the  ecclesiastical  tribunals,  the  scandal  arising  from 
the  profligate  lives  and  impunity  in  crime  of  many  cler- 
gymen, the  zeal  of  the  numerous  Quakers  for  intel- 
lectual freedom,  and  the  powerful  activity  of  a  sort  of 
"  wandering  pretenders  from  New  England,"  deluding 
even  "  Churchmen  by  their  extemporary  prayers  and 
preachments,"  —  all  united  as  a  barrier  against  persecu- 
tion. The  Roman  Catholics  alone  were  left  without 
an  ally,  exposed  to  English  bigotry  and  colonial  injus- 
tice. They  alone  were  disfranchised  on  the  soil  which, 
long  before  Locke  pleaded  for  toleration  or  Penn  for 
religious  freedom,  they  had  chosen,  not  as  their  own 
asylum  only,  but,  with  catholic  liberality,  as  the  asylum 
of  every  persecuted  sect.  In  the  land  which  Catholics 
had  opened  to  Protestants,  the  Catholic  inhabitant  was 

1704.  the  sole  victim  to  Anglican  intolerance.  Mass  might 
not  be  said  publicly.  No  Catholic  priest  or  bishop 


MARYLAND.  33 

might  utter  his  faith  in  a  voice  of  persuasion.  No  CHAP 
Catholic  might  teach  the  young.  If  the  wayward  child  -^^~ 
of  a  Papist  would  but  become  an  apostate,  the  law 
wrested  for  him  from  his  parents  a  share  of  their  prop- 
erty. The  disfranchisement  of  the  proprietary  related 
to  his  creed,  not  to  his  family.  Such  were  the  methods 
adopted  "  to  prevent  the  growth  of  Popery."  Who 
shall  say  that  the  faith  of  the  cultivated  individual  is 
firmer  than  the  faith  of  the  common  people  ?  Who  shall 
say  that  the  many  are  fickle,  that  the  chief  is  firm  ? 
To  recover  the  inheritance  of  authority,  Benedict,  the 
son  of  the  proprietary,  renounced  the  Catholic  Church 
for  that  of  England  ;  the  persecution  never  crushed  the 
faith  of  the  humble  colonists. 

It  was  not  till  1715  that  the  power  of  the  proprietary 
was  restored.  In  the  mean  time,  the  administration 
of  Maryland  resembled  that  of  Virginia.  Nicholson 
and  Andros  were  governors  in  each.  Like  Virginia, 
Maryland  had  no  considerable  town,  was  disturbed  but 
little  by  the  Indians,  and  less  by  the  French.  Its 
staple  was  tobacco  ;  yet  hemp  and  flax  were  raised, 
and  both,  like  tobacco,  were  sometimes  used  as  cur- 
rency. In  Somerset  and  Dorchester,  the  manufacture  1706. 
of  linen,  and  even  of  woollen  cloth,  was  attempted. 
Industry  so  opposite  to  the  system  of  mercantile  mo- 
nopoly needed  an  apology,  and  the  assembly  pleaded, 
in  excuse  of  the  weavers,  that  they  were  driven  to 
their  tasks  "  by  absolute  necessity."  As  Maryland  lies 
in  the  latitude  where,  in  the  collision  of  negro  labor 
and  white  labor,  climate  gives  the  white  man  a  decided 
advantage,  and  as  the  large  introduction  of  slaves  drove 
free  laborers  to  more  northern  regions,  this  province 
surpassed  every  other  in  the  number  of  its  white  ser- 
vants. The  market  was  always  supplied  with  them, 

VOL.  III.  5 


34  MARYLAND. 

CHAP,  the  price  varying  from  twelve  to  thirty  pounds.     By  its 

<^v^  position,  also,  Maryland  was  connected  with  the  north ; 
it  is  the  most  southern  colony  which,  in  1695,  consented 
to  pay  its  quota  towards  the  defence  of  New  York,  thus 
forming,  from  the  Chesapeake  to  Maine,  an  imperfect 
confederacy.  The  union  was  increased  by  a  public 

1695.  post.  Eight  times  in  the  year,  letters  might  be  for- 
warded from  the  Potomac  to  Philadelphia.  During 
the  period  of  the  royal  government,  the  assembly  still 
retained  influence  ;  for  it  firmly  refused  to  establish  a 
permanent  revenue.  Education  was  neglected ;  yet  a 
legislative  enactment  promised  a  library  and  a  free 
school  to  every  parish — a  proof  of  the  zeal  of  the  com- 
missary and  the  good  intentions  of  the  assembly.  The 
population  of  the  colony  increased,  but  not  so  rapidly 
as  elsewhere.  The  usual  estimates  for  this  period  are 
too  low.  In  1710,  the  number  of  bond  and  free  must 
have  exceeded  thirty  thousand ;  yet  a  bounty  for  every 

1715.  wolfs  head  continued  to  be  offered,  the  roads  to  the 
capital  were  long  marked  by  notches  on  trees,  and 
water-mills  still  solicited  legislative  encouragement. 
Such  was  Maryland  as  a  royal  province.  In  1715,  the 
authority  of  the  infant  proprietary  was  vindicated  in  the 
person  of  his  guardian. 

More  happy  than  Lord  Baltimore,  the  proprietary 
of  Pennsylvania  recovered  his  authority  without  sur- 
rendering his  principles.  Accepting  the  resignation  of 
the  narrow  and  imperious  but  honest  Blackwell,  who, 
at  the  period  of  the  revolution,  acted  as  his  deputy,  the 
Quaker  chief  desired  "  to  settle  the  government  in  a 
condition  to  please  the  generality,"  to  "  let  them  be 
the  choosers." — "  Friends," — such  was  his  message, 
— "  I  heartily  wish  you  all  well,  and  beseech  God  to 
guide  you  in  the  ways  of  righteousness  and  peace. 


PENNSYLVANIA.  35 

I  have  thought  fit,  upon  my  further  stop  in  these  parts,  CHAP. 
to  throw  all  into  jour  hands,  that  you  may  see  the  ^~ 
confidence  I  have  in  you,  and  the  desire  I  have  to  give    Min 
you  all  possible  contentment."     And,  as  the  council   "274'.*' 
of  his  province  was,  at  that  time,  elected  directly  by 
the  people,  that  body  collectively  was  constituted  his  1690 
deputy.     Of  its  members,  Thomas  Lloyd,  from  North     2. 
Wales,  an  Oxford  scholar,  was  universally  beloved  as  a 
bright  example  of  the  integrity  of  virtue.     The  path 
of  preferment  had  opened  to  him  in  England,  but  he 
chose    rather  the    internal   peace   that   springs  from 
"  mental  felicity."     This  Quaker  preacher,  the  oracle 
of  "  the  patriot  rustics  "  on  the  Delaware,  was  now,  by 
free  suffrage,  constituted  president  of  the  council.     But 
the  lower  counties  were  jealous  of  the  superior  weight 
of  Pennsylvania ;  disputes  respecting  appointments  to 
office  grew  up;  the  council  divided;  protests  ensued;  i69i 
the  members  from  the  territories  withdrew,  and  would   Afril 
not  be  reconciled ;  so  that,  with  the  reluctant  consent 
of  William  Penn,  who,  though  oppressed  with  persecu- 
tions and  losses,  never  distrusted   the  people  of  his 
province,  and  always  endured  hardships  as  though  they 
"  were,  in  the  end,  every  way  for  good,"  the  lower 
counties  were  constituted  a  separate  government  under 
Markham.     Thus  did  the  commonwealth  of  Delaware 
begin  an  independent  existence.     It  was  the  act  of  its 
own  citizens. 

Uncertainty  rested  on  the  institutions  of  the  prov-  1691 
inces ;  an  apparent  schism  among  the  Quakers  increased 
the  gloom.  Who  denies  that  the  heart  of  man  is  de- 
ceitful, and  desperately  wicked  ?  Often  an  apostate 
from  a  party,  in  the  incipient  stages  ot  apostasy,  is 
unconscious  of  his  change ;  and  the  delusions  of  self- 
love  nurse  the  belief  that  the  perverse  community  from 


36  PENNSYLVANIA. 

CHAP,  which  he  separates  leaves  him  alone  to  vindicate  their 

-  principles  in  unaltered  purity.     So  it  was  with  George 

n»  Keith.  Amidst  the  applause  of  the  malignant  oppo- 
nents of  Quakers,  the  apostate,  conciliating  other 
Protestants  by  a  more  formal  regard  for  the  Bible, 
which  the  Quakers  reverenced,  and  would  not  even 
seem  to  undervalue,  asserted  his  own  exclusive  adhe- 
sion to  the  principles  of  Friends  by  pushing  the  doctrine 
of  non-resistance  to  an  absolute  extreme.  No  true 
Quaker,  he  asserted,  can  act  in  public  life,  either  as  a 
lawgiver  or  as  a  magistrate.  The  inferences  were 
plain.  The  liberties  of  the  province,  fruits  of  Quaker 
legislation,  were  subverted ;  and,  if  Quakers  could  not 
be  magistrates  in  a  Quaker  community,  King  William 
must  -send  Churchmen  to  govern  them.  Conforming 
his  conduct  to  his  opinion,  Keith  resisted  the  magis- 
tracy of  Pennsylvania  with  defiance  and  contumely. 
The  grand  jury  found  him  guilty  of  a  breach  of  the 
laws ;  an  indictment,  trial,  and  conviction  followed. 
The  punishment  awarded  was  a  fine  of  five  pounds ; 
yet,  as  his  offence  was,  in  its  nature,  a  contempt  of 
court,  the  scrupulous  Quakers,  shunning  the  punish- 
ment of  impertinence,  lest  it  should  seem  the  pun- 
ishment of  opinion,  forgave  the  fine.  Meantime,  the 
envious  world,  vexed  at  the  society  which  it  could 
neither  corrupt  nor  intimidate,  set  up  the  cry  that  the 
Quakers  were  turned  persecutors.  Not  a  word  of  ex- 
planation would  be  listened  to.  The  expressions  of 
indignation,  which  the  bluntness  of  the  Quaker  magis- 
trates had  not  restrained,  were  quoted  as  proofs  of 
intolerance.  But,  in  the  great  conflict  of  parties,  the 
devices  of  an  apostate  to  deceive  have  but  an  accidental 
and  transient  interest:  the  unchanged  Quaker,  dis- 
owned by  those  who  had  cherished  and  advanced  him, 


PENNSYLVANIA.  37 

was  soon  left  without  a  faction,  and,  tired  of  his  posi-  CHAP 

-A.J..X.. 

tion,  made  a  true  exposition  of  the  strife  by  accepting  ^^ 
an  Episcopal  benefice. 

The  disturbance  by  Keith,  creating  questions  as  to 
the  administration  of  justice,  confirmed  the  disposition 
of  the  English  government  to  subject  Pennsylvania  to 
a  royal  commission;  and,  in  April,  1693,  Benjamin  I69a 
Fletcher,  assuming  power  as  governor  for  William  and     %? 
Mary,  once  more  united  Delaware  to  Pennsylvania. 
If  no  open  opposition  was  made,  "  yet  some,  who  held 
commissions    from   the   proprietor,    withdrew    at  the 
publishing  of  their  majesties'  commission,  and  others   Jgj^ 
refused  to  act  under  that  power." 

When  the  house  of  representatives  assembled,  resist-  May 
ance  was  developed.  It  was  the  object  of  Fletcher  to 
gain  supplies ;  the  wary  legislators  were  intent  on 
maintaining  their  privileges.  The  laws  founded  on 
the  charter  of  Penn  they  declare  to  be  "  yet  in  • 
force ;  we  desire  the  same  may  be  confirmed  to  us  as 
our  right  and  liberties." — "  If  the  laws,"  answered 
Fletcher,  "  made  by  virtue  of  Mr.  Penn's  charter,  be  of 
force  to  you,  and  can  be  brought  into  competition  with 
the  great  seal  which  commands  me  hither,  I  have  no 
business  here ; "  and  he  pleaded  the  royal  prerogative 
as  inalienable.  "  The  grant  of  King  Charles,"  replied 
Joseph  Growdon,  the  speaker,  "  is  itself  under  the 
great  seal.  Is  that  charter  in  a  lawful  way  at  an  end  ?  " 

To  reconcile  the  difference,  Fletcher  proposed  to 
reenact  the  greater  number  of  the  former  laws.  u  We 
are  but  poor  men,"  said  John  White,  "  and  of  inferior 
degree,  and  represent  the  people.  This  is  our  diffi- 
culty ;  we  durst  not  begin  to  pass  one  bill  to  be  enacted 
of  our  former  laws,  least  by  soe  doing  we  declare  the 
rest  void." 


38  PENNSYLVANIA. 

CHAP.      The  royalists  next  started  a   technical  objection: 

— ^-  the  old  laws  are  invalid  because  they  do  not  bear  the 

^M93   Sreat  seal  °f tne  proprietary.     "  We  know  the  laws  to 

25.     be  our  laws,"  it  was  answered  ;  "  and  we  are  in  the 

enjoyment  of  them ;  the  sealing  does  not  make  the 

law,    but    the    consent    of    governor,    council,   and 

assembly." 

The  same  spirit  pervaded  the  session ;  and  the  grant 
of  a  penny  in  the  pound,  which,  it  was  promised,  "  should 
not  be  dipt  in  blood,"  was  connected  with  a  capitula 
tion  recognizing  the  full  legislative  rights  of  the  repre 
sentatives.  And  a  public  manifesto,  signed  by  all  the 
members  from  Pennsylvania,  declared  it  to  be  "  the 
right  of  the  assembly  that,  before  any  bill  for  supplies 
be  presented,  aggrievances  ought  to  be  redressed." — 
"  My  door  was  never  shut,"  said  Fletcher  on  parting ; 
"  but  it  was  avoided,  as  if  it  were  treason  for  the 
speaker,  or  anie  other  representative,  to  be  seen  in  my 
company  during  your  sessions." 

One  permanent  change  in  the  constitution  was  the 
fruit  of  this  administration :  the  house  originated  its 
bills,  and  retained  this  right  ever  after.  Fletcher 
would  gladly  have  changed  the  law  for  "  yearlie  dele- 
gates;" for  "where,"  thought  the  royalist,  "is  the 
hurt,  if  a  good  assemblie  should  be  continued  from  one 
year  to  another  ?  "  But  the  people  saved  their  privi- 
lege by  having  elected  an  assembly  of  which  Fletcher 
could  "  give  no  good  character  at  Whitehall,"  and  which 
be  could  have  no  wish  to  continue. 

1694       The  assembly  of  the  next  year  was  still  more  im- 
practicable, having  for  its  speaker  David  Lloyd,  the 
keenest  discoverer  of  grievances,  and  the  most  quiet 
and  persevering  of  political  scolds.     "If  you  will  not 
May    levy  money  to  make  war," — such  was  the  governor's 


PENNSYLVANIA.  39 

message, — "  yet  I  hope  you  will  not  refuse  to  feed  the  CHAP 
hungrie,  and  clothe  the  naked."     The  assembly  was  ^v— 
willing  to  give  alms  to  the  sufferers  round  Albany ;  but  1694 
it  claimed  the  right  of  making  specific  appropriations, 
and  collecting  and  disbursing  the  money  by  officers  of 
its  own  appointment.     The  demand  was  rejected  as 
an  infringement  on  the  royal  prerogative  ;  and,  after  a 
fortnight's   altercation,   the   assembly  was   dissolved. 
Such  was  the  success  of  a  royal  governor  in  Penn- 
sylvania. 

Meantime,  the  proprietary  recovered  his  authority. 
Thrice,  within  two  years  after  the  revolution,  had 
William  Penn  been  arrested  and  brought  before  court, 
and  thrice  he  had  been  openly  set  free.  He  prepared  1690 
to  embark  once  more  for  America ;  emigrants  crowded 
round  him ;  a  convoy  was  granted ;  the  fleet  was 
almost  ready  to  sail,  when,  on  his  return  from  the 
funeral  of  George  Fox,  messengers  were  sent  to  appre- 
hend him.  Having  been  thrice  questioned,  and  thrice 
acquitted,  he  now  went  into  retirement.  Locke  would 
have  interceded  for  his  pardon  ;  but  Penn  refused 
clemency,  waiting  rather  for  justice.  The  delay  com- 
pleted the  wreck  of  his  fortunes ;  sorrow  lowered  over 
his  family  ;  the  wife  of  his  youth  yielded  to  a  mortal 
disease ;  his  eldest  son  had  no  vigorous  hold  on  life  ; 
even  among  Friends,  some  cavilled  at  his  conduct ; 
Jesuit,  Papist,  rogue,  and  traitor,  were  the  gentlest 
calumnies  of  the  world ;  yet  Penn  preserved  his  seren- 
ity, and,  true  to  his  principles,  in  a  season  of  passionate 
and  almost  universal  war,  published  a  plea  for  eternal 
peace  among  the  nations. 

But,  among  the  many  in  England  whom  Penn  had 
benefited,  gratitude  was  not  extinct.     On  the  restora-  1693 
tion  of  the  whigs  to  power,  Rochester,  who,  under 


40  PENNSYLVANIA. 

CHAP.  James  II.,  had  given  up  office,  rather  than  profess  Ro- 
— —  manism,  the  less  distinguished  Ranelagh,  and  Henry, 
the  brother  of  Algernon  Sidney,  of  old  the  correspond- 
ent of  the  prince  of  Orange,  as  well  as  the  warm 
friend  of  William  Penn,  interceded  for  the  restoration 
of  the  proprietary  of  Pennsylvania.     "  He  is  my  old 
acquaintance,"  answered  William  ;    "he  may  follow 
his  business  as  freely  as  ever ;  I  have  nothing  to  say 
1694   against  him."     Appearing  before  the  king  in  council, 
Aug.   his  innocence  was  established ;  and,  in  August,  1 694, 
the  patent  for  his  restoration  passed  the  seals. 

1695.  The  pressure  of  poverty  delayed  the  return  of  the 
2&     proprietary  to  the  banks  of  the  Delaware  ;  and  Mark- 
ham  was  invested  with  the  executive  power.     The 

Sept  members  of  the  assembly,  which  he  convened,  anxious 
for  political  liberties,  which  the  recent  changes  had 
threatened  to  efface,  found  a  remedy  within  themselves, 
and,  assuming  the  power  of  fundamental  legislation, 
framed  a  democratic  constitution.  They  would  have 
"  their  privileges  granted  before  they  would  give  anie 
monie."  Doubtful  of  the  extent  of  his  authority, 
Markham  dissolved  the  assembly. 

1696.  The  legislature  of  the  next  year  persevered,  and, 
by  its  own  authority,  subject  only  to  the  assent  of  the 
proprietary,  established  a  purely  democratic  govern- 
ment.    The  governor  was  but  chairman  of  the  council 
The  council,  the  assembly,  each  was  chosen  by  the 
people.     The  time  of  election,  the  time  of  assembling, 
the  period  of  office,  were  placed  beyond  the  power  of 
the  executive.     The  judiciary  depended  on  the  legis- 
lature.    The  people  constituted  themselves  the  foun- 

APP.  »•'•  tain  of  honor  and  of  power.     When   the   assembly 

1697.  next  came  together,  Markham    could    say  to   them, 
12.     "  You  are  met,  not   by  virtue  of  any  writ  of  mine, 


PENNSYLVANIA.  41 

but  of  a  law  made  by  yourselves."  The  people  ruled,  CHAP. 
and,  after  years  of  strife,  all  went  happily.  Nothing  ^^ 
was  wanting  but  concert  with  the  proprietary. 

Before  the  close  of  the  century,  William  Pcnn  was  1699 
once  more  within  his  colony.  The  commonwealth, 
which  had  been  as  an  infant,  nestling  under  his  wing, 
had  ripened  into  self-reliance.  Passing  over  all  inter- 
mediate changes,  the  proprietary  acknowledged  the 
present  validity  of  the  old  fundamental  law.  "Let's 
make  a  constitution,"  said  a  member  of  the  council, 
"  that  may  be  firm  and  lasting  to  us  and  ours  ;  "  and 
Penn  invited  them  "  to  keep  what's  good  in  the 
charter  and  frame  of  government,  to  lay  aside  what 
is  burdensome,  and  to  add  what  may  best  suit 
the  common  good."  And  the  old  charter  was  surren-  June 
dered,  with  the  unanimous  consent  of  the  assembly 
and  council. 

Yet  the  framing  of  a  new  constitution  was  delayed 
by  colonial  jars.  The  counties  of  Delaware  dreaded 
the  loss  of  their  independence  by  a  union  with  the 
extending  population  of  Pennsylvania.  Besides,  in 
the  lower  province,  the  authority  of  William  Penn 
rested  but  on  sufferance ;  in  the  larger  state,  it  was 
sanctioned  by  a  royal  charter;  and  a  passionate  strife  17QO 
delayed  the  establishment  of  government.  1701 

Meantime,  the  proprietary  endeavored  to  remove  the 
jealousy  with  which  his  provinces  were  regarded  in 
England.  The  parliament  ever  insisted  on  the  colo- 
nial monopoly,  and  the  colony  readily  passed  laws 
against  piracy  and  illicit  trade ;  but  it  could  not  assent 
to  propitiate  the  English  sovereigns  by  granting  its 
quota  for  the  defence  of  New  York. 

In  regard  to  the  improvement  of  the  negroes,  Penn 
attempted  to  legislate,  not  for  the  abolition  of  slavery, 

VOL.  III.  6 


42  PENNSYLVANIA. 

CHAR  but  for  the  sanctity  of  marriage  among  the  slaves,  and 
^^^  for  their  personal  safety.     The  last  object  was  effected ; 
the  first,  which  would  have   been  the   forerunner  of 
freedom,  was  defeated. 

Neither  did  philanthropy  achieve  permanent  benefits 
for  the  Indian.  Treaties  of  peace  were  renewed  with 
the  men  of  the  wilderness  from  the  Potomac  to  Oswego, 
and  the  trade  with  them  was  subjected  to  regulations  ; 
but  they  could  not  be  won  to  the  faith  or  the  habits  of 
civilized  life. 

These  measures  were  adopted  amidst  the  fruitless 
1701.  wranglings  between  the  delegates  from  Delaware  and 
2if  those  from  Pennsylvania.  At  last,  the  news  was  re- 
ceived that  the  English  parliament  was  about  to  render 
all  their  strifes  and  all  their  hopes  nugatory  by  the 
general  abrogation  of  every  colonial  charter.  An  as- 
sembly  was  summoned  instantly ;  and,  when  it  came 
together,  the  proprietary,  eager  to  return  to  England  to 
defend  the  common  rights  of  himself  and  his  province, 
urged  the  perfecting  of  their  frame  of  government. 
"  Since  all  men  are  mortal," — such  was  his  weighty 
message, — "  think  of  some  suitable  expedient  and  pro- 
vision for  your  safety,  as  well  in  your  privileges  as 
property,  and  you  will  find  me  ready  to  comply  with 
whatever  may  render  us  happy  by  a  nearer  union  of 
our  interests.  Review  again  your  laws  ;  propose  new 
ones,  that  may  better  your  circumstances ;  and  what 
you  do,  do  it  quickly.  Unanimity  and  despatch  may 
contribute  to  the  disappointment  of  those  that  too  long 
have  sought  the  ruin  of  OUR  YOUNG  COUNTRY." 

The  relations  of  Penn  to  his  colony  were  twofold , 
he  was  their  sovereign,  and  he  was  the  owner  of  the 
unappropriated  domain.  The  members  of  the  assem- 
bly, impelled  by  an  interest  common  to  every  one  of 


PENNSYLVANIA.  43 

their  constituents,  were  disposed  to  encroach  on  his  CHAP. 
private  rights.     If  some  of  their  demands  were  resisted,  -^^ 
he  readily  yielded  every  thing  which  could  be  claimed,  1701 
even  by  inference,  from  his  promises,  or  could  be  ex- 
pected from  his  liberality ;  making  his  interests  of  less    JJin- 
consideration  than  the  satisfaction  of  his  people  ;  rather 
remitting  than  rigorously  exacting  his  revenues. 

Of  political  privileges,  he  conceded  all  that  was  de- 
sired. The  council,  henceforward  to  be  appointed  by 
the  proprietary,  became  a  branch  of  the  executive  gov- 
ernment ;  the  assembly  assumed  to  itself  the  right  of 
originating  every  act  of  legislation,  subject  only  to  the 
assent  of  the  governor.  Elections  to  the  assembly 
were  annual ;  the  time  of  its  election  and  the  time  of 
its  session  were  fixed :  it  was  to  sit  upon  its  own  ad- 
journments. Sheriffs  and  coroners  were  nominated  by 
the  people  ;  no  questions  of  property  could  come  before 
the  governor  and  council ;  the  judiciary  was  left,  -to  the 
discretion  of  the  legislature.  Religious  liberty  was 
established,  and  every  public  employment  was  open  to 
every  man  professing  faith  in  Jesus  Christ.  Happy 
Pennsylvania  !  While,  in  revolutionized  England,  the 
triennial  parliaments  were  dependent  for  the  time  of 
their  election,  prorogation,  and  dissolution,  on  the  will 
of  the  sovereign ;  while  Papists  were  persecuted,  and 
dissenters  disfranchised ;  in  Pennsylvania,  human  rights 
were  respected.  The  fundamental  law  of  William 
Penn,  even  his  detractors  concede,  was  in  harmony 
with  universal  reason,  and  true  to  the  ancient  and  just 
liberties  of  the  people. 

On  returning  to  America,  William  Penn  had  designed 
to  remain  here  for  life,  and  to  give  a  home  to  his  family 
and  his  posterity  in  the  New  World.  But  his  work 
was  accomplished.  Divesting  himself  and  his  sue- 


44  PENNSYLVANIA. 

CHAP,  cessors  of  all  power  to  injure,  he  had  founded  a  democ- 
'"  racy.     By  the  necessity  of  the  case,  he  remained  its 

1701.  feudal  sovereign  ;  for  it  was  only  as  such  that  he  could 
have  granted  or  could  maintain  the  charter  of  colonial 
liberties.    His  resignation  would  have  been  a  surrender 
of  the  colony  to  the  crown.     But  time  and  the  people 
would  remove  the  inconsistency.     And  now,  having 
given  freedom  and  popular  power  to  his  provinces,  no 
strifes  remaining  but  strifes  about  property,  happily  for 
himself,  happily  for  his  people,  happily  for  posterity, 
he  departed  from  the  "  young  countrie  "  of  his  affec- 
tions, and    exiled   himself  to   the    birthplace  of  his 
fathers. 

For   the  separation  of   the   territories,  contingent 

1702.  provision  had  been  made  by  the  proprietary.     In  1702, 
Pennsylvania  convened  its  legislature  apart,  and  the 
two   colonies  were  never  again  united.     The  lower 
counties  became  at  once  almost  an  independent  democ- 
racy ;  for,  as  the  authority  of  the  proprietary  was  one 

1708.  of  sufferance  merely,  and  was  often  brought  into  ques- 
tion, the  executive  power  intrusted  to  the  governor  of 
Pennsylvania  was  too  feeble  to  limit  the  power  of  the 
people.  Delaware  had  its  own  legislature,  its  own 
tribunals,  its  own  subordinate  executive  offices,  and 
virtually  enjoyed  an  absolute  self-government. 
1701  T}le  subsequent  years  in  Pennsylvania  exhibit  con- 
mo.  stant  collisions  between  the  proprietary,  as  owner  of 
the  unappropriated  public  territory,  and  a  people  eager 
to  enlarge  their  freeholds.  The  scoldings  of  David 
Lloyd  may  be  consigned  to  oblivion ;  the  integrity  of 
the  mildly  aristocratic  James  Logan,  to  whose  judicious 
care  the  proprietary  estates  were  intrusted,  has  pre- 
served its  purity  unsullied  by  the  accusations  or  im- 
peachments of  the  assembly.  Strifes  also  existed  on 


PENNSYLVANIA.  45 

political  questions.  The  end  of  government  was  de-  CHAP 
clared  to  be  the  happiness  of  the  people,  and  from  this  — ~^~ 
maxim  the  duties  of  the  governor  were  derived.  But 
the  organization  of  the  judiciary  was  the  subject  of 
longest  controversy.  That  the  tenure  of  the  judicial 
office  should  be  the  will  of  the  people,  was  claimed  as  1707 
"  the  people's  right."  •  The  rustic  legislators  insisted  £; 
on  their  right  to  institute  the  judiciary,  fix  the  rules  of 
court,  define  judicial  power  with  precision,  and  by  re- 
quest displace  judges  for  misbehavior.  Neither  would 
they,  even  in  the  highest  courts,  have  English  lawyers 
for  judges.  "  Men  skilled  in  the  law,"  said  they,  "  of 
good  integrity,  are  very  desirable  ;  yet  we  incline  to  be  1706. 
content  with  the  best  men  the  colony  affords."  And  met 
the  courts  obtained  no  permanent  organization  till  the 
accession  of  the  house  of  Hanover.  The  civil  consti- 
tution included  feudalism  and  democracy ;  from  this 
there  could  be  no  escape  but  through  the  sovereignty 
of  the  people.  Twice,  indeed,  the  province  had  almost 
become  a  royal  one — once  by  act  of  parliament,  and 
once  by  treaty.  But,  in  England,  a  real  regard  for 
the  sacrifices  and  the  virtues  of  William  Penn  gained 
him  friends  among  English  statesmen  ;  and  the  malice 
of  the  pestilent  English  office-seekers,  of  Quarry,  and 
the  men  employed  in  enforcing  the  revenue  laws, 
valuing  a  colony  only  by  the  harvest  it  offered  of  emolu- 
ments and  jobs,  and  ever  ready  to  appeal  selfishly  to 
the  crown,  the  church,  or  English  trade,  was  never 
able  to  overthrow  his  influence.  His  poverty,  conse- 
quent on  his  disinterested  labors,  created  a  willingness 
to  surrender  his  province  to  the  crown  ;  but  he  insisted 
on  preserving  the  colonial  liberties,  and  the  crown 
hardly  cared  to  buy  a  democracy.  If  the  violent  con- 
flicts of  the  assembly,  in  their  eagerness  to  engross  all 


46  PENNSYLVANIA. 

CHAP,  authority,  and  gain  control  over  the  questions  of  prop- 
-^v^  erty  between  the  province  and  its  proprietary,  seemed 
sometimes  to  compel  a  surrender  of  his  powers  of  gov- 
ernment, yet  the  bare  apprehension  of  such  a  result 
always  brought  the  colonists  to  a  gentler  temper. 

Thus  did  Penn  perfect  his  government.  An  execu- 
tive dependent  for  its  support  on  the  people  ;  all  subor- 
dinate executive  officers  elected  by  the  people  ;  the 
judiciary  dependent  for  its  existence  on  the  people  ;  all 
legislation  originating  exclusively  with  the  people  ;  no 
forts,  no  armed  police,  no  militia ;  perfect  freedom  of 
opinion ;  no  established  church  ;  no  difference  of  rank ; 
and  a  harbor  opened  for  the  reception  of  all  mankind, 
of  children  of  every  language  and  every  creed ; — could 
it  be  that  the  invisible  power  of  reason  would  be  able 
to  order  and  to  restrain,  to  punish  crime  and  to  pro- 
tect property  ?  Would  not  confusion,  discord,  and  rapid 
ruin  successively  follow  such  a  government  ?  Or  was 
it  a  conceivable  thing  that,  in  a  country  without  army, 
without  militia,  without  forts,  and  with  no  sheriffs 
but  those  elected  by  the  rabble,  with  their  liberty 
shouts,  wealth  and  population  should  increase,  and 
the  spectacle  be  given  of  the  happiest  and  most  pros- 
pered land  ? 

In  New  Jersey,  had  the  proprietary  power  been 
vested  in  the  people,  or  reserved  to  one  man,  it  would 
have  survived ;  but  it  was  divided  among  speculators 
in  land,  who,  as  a  body,  had  gain,  and  not  freedom, 
for  their  end. 

smith,  In  April,  1688,  "  the  proprietors  of  East  New  Jersey 
had  surrendered  their  pretended  right  of  government," 
and  the  surrender  had  been  accepted.  In  October 
of  the  same  year,  the  council  of  the  proprietaries,  not 
of  the  people,  of  West  New  Jersey,  voted  to  surrender 


NEW   JERSEY.  47 

to  the  secretary-general  for  the  dominion  of  New  Eng-  CHAP. 

XIX 

land,  "  all  records  relating  to  government."  Thus  the  ' — ^ 
whole  province  fell,  with  New  York  and  New  England, 
under  the  consolidated  government  of  Andros.  At  the 
revolution,  therefore,  the  sovereignty  over  New  Jersey 
was  merged  in  the  crown  ;  and  the  legal  maxim,  soon 
promulgated  by  the  lords  of  trade,  that  the  domains  of 
the  proprietaries  might  be  bought  and  sold,  but  not 
their  executive  power,  weakened  their  attempts  at 
the  restoration  of  their  authority. 

Will  you  know  with  how  little  government  a  com- 
munity of  husbandmen  may  be  safe  ?  For  twelve 
years,  the  whole  province  was  not  in  a  settled  condi- 
tion. From  June,  1689,  to  August,  1692,  East  New 
Jersey  had  no  government  whatever,  being,  in  time  of 
war,  without  military  officers,  as  well  as  without  magis- 
trates ;  and  afterwards  commissions  were  issued  by 
two  sets  of  proprietors,  of  which  each  had  its  adherents  • 
while  a  third  party,  swayed  by  disgust  at  the  confusion, 
and  also  by  disputes  about  land  titles,  rejected  the  pro- 
prietaries altogether.  In  the  western  moiety,  Daniel 
Coxe,  as  largest  owner  of  the  domain,  claimed  exclu- 
sive  proprietary  powers ;  yet  the  people  disallowed  his 
claim,  rejecting  his  deputy  under  the  bad  name  of  a 
Jacobite.  In  1691,  Coxe  conveyed  such  authority  as 
he  had  to  the  West  Jersey  Society ;  and  in  1692,  An- 
drew Hamilton  was  accepted  in  the  colony  as  governor 
under  their  commission.  Thus  did  West  New  Jersey 
continue,  with  a  short  interruption  in  1698,  till  the 
government  was  surrendered.  But  the  law  officers  of 
the  crown  questioned  even  the  temporary  settlement, 
and  the  lords  of  trade  claimed  New  Jersey  as  a  royal 
province,  and  they  proposed  a  settlement  of  the  ques-  1699 
tion  by  "  a  trial  in  Westminster  Hall  on  a  feigned 


48  NEW  JERSEY. 

CHAP,  issue."  The  proprietaries,  threatened  with  the  ulti- 
^~  mate  interference  of  parliament,  in  respect  to  provinces 
Jfucom-  "  where,"  it  was  said,  "  no  regular  government  had 
noil'  ever  ^een  estabtished,"  resolved  rather  to  resign  their 
1702.  pretensions.  In  the  first  year  of  Queen  Anne,  the 
j^1  surrender  took  place  before  the  privy  council. 

It  is  worthy  of  remark,  that  the  domain,  ceasing  to 
be  connected  with  proprietary  powers,  remained,  under 
the  rules  of  private  right,  safe  to  its  possessors,  and 
was  never  confiscated.  After  the  revolution,  even  to 
the  present  time,  their  rights  have  been  respected  like 
other  titles  to  estates.  So  true  it  is,  that  the  separa- 
tion of  private  property  from  political  questions  tends 
to  its  security. 

The  surrender  of  "  the  pretended  "  rights  to  govern- 
ment being  completed,  the  two  Jerseys  were  united  in 
one  province ;  and  the  government  was  conferred  on 
Edward  Hyde,  Lord  Cornbury,  who,  like  Queen  Anne, 
was  the  grandchild  of  Clarendon. 

New  Jersey  never  again  obtained  a  charter :  the 
royal  commission  and  the  royal  instructions  to  Lord 
Cornbury  constituted  the  form  of  its  administration. 
To  the  governor  appointed  by  the  crown  belonged  the 
power  of  legislation,  with  consent  of  the  royal  council 
and  the  representatives  of  the  people.  A  freehold,  or 
property  qualification,  limited  the  elective  franchise. 
The  governor  could  convene,  prorogue,  or  dissolve  the 
assembly  at  his  will,  and  the  period  of  its  duration  de- 
pended on  his  pleasure.  The  laws  were  subject  to  an 
immediate  veto  from  the  governor,  and  a  veto  from 
the  crown,  to  be  exercised  at  any  time.  The  governor, 
with  the  consent  of  his  council,  instituted  courts  of 
law,  and  appointed  their  officers.  The  people  took 
no  part  in  constituting  the  judiciary.  Liberty  of 


NEW  JERSEY.  49 

conscience  was  granted  to  all  but  Papists,  but  favor  CHAP. 
was  invoked  for  the  Church  of  England.     At  the  same  - — •*- 
time,  its  prosperity  was  made  impossible  by  invest- 
ing the  governor  with  the   right  of  presentation   to 
benefices. 

In  suits  at  law,  the  governor  and  council  formed  a 
court  of  appeal :  if  the  value  in  dispute  exceeded  two 
hundred  pounds,  the  English  privy  council  possessed 
ultimate  jurisdiction.  Two  instructions  mark,  one  a 
declining  bigotry,  the  other  an  increasing  interest. 
"  Great  inconvenience,"  says  Queen  Anne,  "  may  arise 
by  the  liberty  of  printing  in  our  province  "  of  New 
Jersey ;  and  therefore  no  printing  press  might  be  kept, 
"  no  book,  pamphlet,  or  other  matters  whatsoever,  be 
printed  without  a  license."  And,  in  conformity  with 
English  policy,  especial  countenance  of  the  traffic 
"  in  merchantable  negroes "  was  earnestly  enjoined. 
Thus  the  courts,  the  press,  the  executive,  became  de- 
pendent on  the  crown,  and  the  interests  of  free  labor 
were  sacrificed  to  the  cupidity  of  the  Royal  African 
Company. 

One  method  of  influence  remained  to  the  people  of 
New  Jersey.  The  assembly  must  fix  the  amount  of 
its  grants  to  the  governor.  The  queen  did  not  venture 
to  prescribe,  or  to  invite  parliament  to  prescribe,  a 
salary, — still  less,  herself  to  concede  it  from  colonial 
resources.  Urgent  that  all  appropriations  should  be 
made  directly  for  the  use  of  the  crown,  to  be  audited 
by  her  officers,  she  wished  a  fixed  revenue  to  be  set- 
tled ;  but  the  colonial  deliberations  were  respected, 
and  the  wise  assembly,  which  never  established  a  per- 
manent revenue,  often  embarrassed  its  votes  of  supplies 
by  insisting  on  an  auditor  of  its  own. 

The  freemen  of  the  colony  were  soon  conscious  of 
VOL.  in.  7 


50  NEW   JERSEY. 

CHAP,  the  diminution  of  their  liberties.  For  absolute  religious 
- — -  freedom,  they  obtained  only  toleration  ;  for  courts  rest- 
ing on  enactments  of  their  own  representatives,  they 
now  had  courts  instituted  by  royal  ordinances  ;  and  the 
sense  of  their  loss  quickened  their  love  of  freedom  by 
an  undefined  sentiment  of  having  suffered  a  wrong. 
By  degrees  they  claimed  to  hold  their  former  privileges 
by  the  nature  of  an  inviolable  compact.  The  surrender 
of  their  charter  could  change  the  authority  of  the  propri- 
etaries, but  not  impair  their  concessions  of  political  lib- 
erties. Inured  to  self-reliance  and  self-government,  no 
thought  of  independence  sprung  up  among  them  ;  but 
the  Quakers  and  Puritans  of  East  and  West  New  Jer- 
sey, cordially  joining  to  vindicate  their  common  liberties, 
never  feared  an  encounter  with  a  royal  governor,  and 
were  ever  alert  to  resist  encroachments  on  their  rights. 
1702.  Retaining  its  own  legislature,  New  Jersey  was,  for 
a  season,  included  in  the  same  government  with  New 
York.  The  first  governor  of  West  New  Jersey  had 
been  the  peaceful  Thomas  Olive,  who,  as  a  magistrate, 
had  quietly  dispensed  justice  seated  on  a  stump  in  his 
fields,  and,  as  governor,  had  been  content  with  twenty 
pounds  a  year.  Did  hopes  dawn  of  a  brighter  day 
with  a  kinsman  to  the  queen  as  governor  of  the  united 
royal  province  ?  In  the  administration  of  Olive,  there 
had  been  tranquillity  arid  contentment, — the  happiness 
of  a  blameless  community  under  its  own  guardianship. 
Would  more  even  justice  be  administered  by  one 
so  nearly  allied  to  the  nobility  and  the  throne  of 
England  ? 

In  New  York,  the  dread  of  Popery  and  despotism 
bewildered  the  hasty  judgment  of  the  less  cultivated. 
There  were  differences  in  origin  ;  the  Dutch  were  not 
blended  with  the  English;  and  if,  of  the  latter,  the 


NEW    FORK.  51 

stern  dissenters   opposed   the  Churchmen   and   those  CHAP 

XIX 

who  had  gathered  round  the  royal  governor,  among  — ^ 
the  Dutch,  also,  the  humbler  class  of  people  had  not 
amalgamated  with  "  the  gentlemen  of  figure."  From 
the  first,  feudal  distinctions  had  existed  among  the 
emigrants  from  Holland.  In  assuming  power,  Leisler 
rested  chiefly  for  his  support  upon  the  less  educated 
classes  of  the  Dutch,  and  English  dissenters  were  not 
heartily  his  friends.  The  large  Dutch  landholders, 
many  of  the  English  merchants,  the  friends  to  the  An- 
glican Church,  the  cabal  that  had  grown  up  round  the 
royal  governors,  were  his  wary  and  unrelenting  oppo- 
nents. But  his  greatest  weakness  was  in  himself. 
Too  restless  to  obey,  and  too  passionate  to  command, 
as  a  Presbyterian,  Leisler  was  averse  to  the  Church  of 
England  ;  as  a  man  of  middling  fortunes,  to  the  aris- 
tocracy; while,  as  a  Dutchman  and  a  Calvinist,  he 
was  an  enthusiast  for  William  of  Orange.  Destitute 
of  equanimity,  his  failure  was  inevitable. 

The  Protestant  insurgents  had,  immediately  after 
the  revolution  in  New  England,  taken  possession  of 
the  fort  in  New  York.  A  few  companies  of  militia, 
from  the  first,  sided  with  Leisler  openly,  and  nearly 
five  hundred  men  in  arms  soon  joined  him.  Their 
declaration,  published  to  the  world,  avows  their  pur- 
poses :  "As  soon  as  the  bearer  of  orders  from  the  a 
prince  of  Orange  shall  have  let  us  see  his  power,  then, 
without  delay,  we  do  intend  to  obey,  not  the  orders 
only,  but  also  the  bearer  thereof." 

A  committee  of  safety  of  ten  assumed  the  task  of 

T    T      ,    T    .  i  1689 

reorganizing  the  government,  and  Jacob  Leisler  re-  June 

ceived  *heir  commission  to  command  the  fort  of  New     8* 
York.     Of  this  he  gained  possession  without  a  struggle. 
An  address  to  King  William  was  forwarded,  and  a  letter 


52  NEW  YORK. 

CHAP,  from  Leisler  was  received  by  that  prince,  if  not  with  fa- 
^  —  vor,  yet  with  respect,  and  without  rebuke.     Nicholson, 
July    the  deputy-governor,  had  been  heard  to  say,  what  was 
afterwards  often  repeated,  that  the  people  of  New  York 
were  a  conquered  people,  without  claim  to  the  rights 
of  Englishmen  ;  that  the  prince  might  lawfully  govern 
them   by  his  own  will,  and   appoint  what  laws   he 
pleased.     The  dread  of  this  doctrine  sunk  deeply  into 
the  public  mind,  and  afterwards  attracted  the  notice 
of  the  assemblies  of  New  York.     At  that  period  of 
Aug.   disorder,  the  committee  of  safety  reassembled  ;   and 
"  Leisler,  an  insolent  alien,  assisted,"  say  "  the  princi- 
pal men  "  of  New  York,  "  by  those  who  formerly  were 
thought  unfit  to  be  in  the  meanest  offices,"  was  con- 
stituted the  temporary  governor  of  the  province. 

The  appointment  was,  in  its  form,  open  to  censure 
Courtland,  the  mayor  of  the  city,  Bayard,  and  others 
of  the  council,  after  fruitless  opposition,  retired  to  Al- 
bany, where  the  magistrates,  in  convention,  proclaimed 
then*  allegiance  to  William  and  Mary,  and  their  resolu- 
tion to  disregard  the  authority  of  Leisler.  When 
Milborne,  the  son-in-law  of  Leisler,  first  came  to  de- 
mand the  fort,  he  was  successfully  resisted.  In  De- 
cember, letters  were  received  addressed  to  Nicholson, 
or,  in  his  absence,  to  "such  as,  for  the  time  being, 
take  care  for  preserving  the  peace  and  administering 
the  law  "  in  New  York.  A  commission  to  Nicholson 
accompanied  them.  The  commission  proved  the  royal 
favor  to  be  with  the  tory  party,  the  friends  of  the  late 
government  ;  but,  as  Nicholson  was  absent,  Leisler 
esteemed  his  own  authority  to  have  received  the  royal 
sanction. 

1690       A  warrant  was  soon  issued  for  the  apprehension  of 
IT*    Bayard  ;  and  Albany,  in   the  spring,  terrified   by  the 


NEW   YORK.  55 

calamity  of  an  Indian  invasion,  and  troubled   by  the  CHAP 

anger  and  the  outrages  of  domestic  factions,  yielded  to  ~ 

Milborne. 

To  protect  the  frontier,  and  invade  and  conquer 
Canada,  was  the  ruling  passion  of  the  northern  colo- 
nies ;  but  the  summer  was  lost  in  fruitless  preparations, 
and  closed  in  strife. 

Meantime,  a  house  of  representatives  had  been  con- 
vened, and,  amidst  distress  and  confusion,  the  govern 
ment  constituted  by  the  popular  act. 

In  January  of  1691,  the  Beaver   arrived  in  New  1691 
York  harbor  with  Ingoldsby,  who  bore  a  commission 
as  captain.     Leisler  offered  him  quarters  in  the  city : 
"Possession  of  his  majesty's  fort  is  what  I  demand,"     30* 
replied  Ingoldsby,  and  issued  a  proclamation  requiring 
submission.     Thus  the  aristocratic  party  obtained  as  a 
leader  one  who  held  a  commission  from  the  new  sove- 
reign.    Leisler,  conforming  to  the  original  agreement    ^ 
made  with  his  fellow-insurgents,  replied,  that  Ingoldsby 
had  produced  no  order  from  the  king,  or  from  Slough- 
ter,  who,  it  was  known,  had  received  a  commission  as 
governor,  and,  promising  him  aid  as  a  military  officer, 
refused  to  surrender   the  fort.     The  troops,  as  they    Fjb* 
landed,  were  received  with  all  courtesy  and  accommo- 
dation ;   yet  passions  ran  high,  and  a  shot  even  was 
fired  at  them.     The  outrage  was  severely  reproved 
by  Leisler,  who,  amidst   proclamations  and   counter- 
proclamations,   promised   obedience   to   Sloughter   on     JJJ? 
his  arrival. 

On  the  evening  on  which  the  profligate,  needy,  and  March 
narrow-minded  adventurer,  who  held  the  royal  com- 
mission, arrived  in  New  York,  Leisler  sent  messengers 
to  receive  his  orders.     The  messengers  were  detained. 
Next  morning,  he  asked,  by  letter,  to  whom  he  should    20 


54  NEW    YORK. 

:* 

CHAP,  surrender  the  fort.     The   letter  was  unheeded  ;    and 

XIX 

- — ^  Sloughter,  giving  no  notice  to  Leisler,  commanded 
Ingoldsby  "to  arrest  Leisler,  and  the  persons  called 
his  council." 

1691.  The  prisoners,  eight  in  number,  were  promptly  ar- 
raigned before  a  special  court  constituted  for  the  pur- 
pose by  an  ordinance,  and  having  inveterate  royalists 
as  judges.  Six  of  the  inferior  insurgents  made  their 
defence,  were  convicted  of  high  treason,  and  were  re- 
prieved. Leisler  and  Milborne  denied  to  the  governor 
the  power  to  institute  a  tribunal  for  judging  his  prede- 
cessor, and  they  appealed  to  the  king.  On  their  re- 
fusal to  plead,  they  were  condemned  of  high  treason 
as  mutes,  and  sentenced  to  death,  —  Joseph  Dudley, 
of  New  England,  now  chief  justice  in  New  York,  giving 
the  opinion  that .  Leisler  had  had  no  legal  authority 
May  whatever.  "Certainly  never  greater  villains  lived," 
wrote  Sloughter;  but  he  "resolved  to  wait  for  the 
royal  pleasure,  if  by  any  other  means  than  hanging  he 
could  keep  the  country  quiet." 

Meantime  the  assembly,  for  which  warrants  had  been 
Agjrfl   issued  on  the  day  of  Leisler's  arrest,  came  together. 
In  its  character  it  was  thoroughly  royalist,  establishing 
a  revenue,  and  placing  it  in  the  hands  of  the  receiver- 
general,  at  the  mercy  of  the  governor's  warrant.     It 
passed  several  resolves  against  Leisler,  especially  de- 
claring his  conduct  at  the  fort  an  act  of  rebellion ;  and 
Sloughter,  in  a  time  of  excitement,  assented  to  the 
May    vote  of  the  council,  that  Leisler  and  Milborne  should 
be  executed.     "  The  house,  according  to  their  opinion 
15.     given,  did  approve  of  what  his  excellency  and  council 
had  done." 

Accordingly,  on  the  next  day,  amidst  a  drenching 
rain,  Leisler,  parting  from    his   wife    Alice,  and    his 


NEW  YORK.  5£ 

numerous  family,  was,  with  his  son-in-law,  Mil  borne,  CHAP 
led   to  the    gallows.     Both  acknowledged  the  errors  •^-^ 
which  they  had  committed  "  through  ignorance  and  gatur. 
jealous    fear,  through   rashness  and  passion,  through 
misinformation   and    misconstruction ; "   in   other  re- 
spects,  they    asserted    their    innocence,    which    their 
blameless  private  lives  confirmed.     "  Weep  not  for  us, 
who  are  departing  to  our  God," — these  were  Leisler's 
words  to  his  oppressed  friends, — "  but  weep  for  your- 
selves, that  remain  behind  in  misery  and  vexation  ;  "    MS 
adding,  as  the    handkerchief  was    bound  round    his 
face,  "  I  hope  these  eyes  shall  see  our  Lord  Jesus  in 
heaven."     Mil  borne  exclaimed,  "  I  die  for  the  king 
and  queen,  and  the  Protestant  religion,  in  which  I  was 
born  and  bred.     Father,  into  thy  hands  I  commend  my 
spirit." 

The  appeal  to  the  king,  which  had  not  been  per-  1692 
mitted  during  their  lives,  was  made  by  Leisler's  son  ;      7. 
and,  though  the  committee  of  lords  of  trade  reported 
that  the  forms  of  law  had  not  been  broken,  the  estates 
of  "  the  deceased  "  were  restored    to    their  families. 
Dissatisfied  with  this  imperfect  redress,  the  friends  of 
Leisler  persevered    till   an  act  of  parliament,  stren-  1695 
uously  but  vainly  opposed    by  Dudley,  reversed  the  Private 
attainder. 

Thus  fell  Leisler  and  Milborne,  victims  to  party 
spirit.  The  event  struck  deep  into  the  public  mind. 
Long  afterwards,  their  friends,  whom  a  royalist  of  that 
day  described  as  "  the  meaner  sort  of  the  inhabitants," 
and  who  were  distinguished  always  by  their  zeal  for 
popular  power,  for  toleration,  for  opposition  to  the  doc- 
trine of  legitimacy,  formed  a  powerful,  and  ultimately 
a  successful,  party.  The  rashness  and  incompetency 
of  Leisler  were  forgotten  in  sympathy  for  the  judicial 


56  NEW   YORK. 

CHAP  murder  by  which  he  fell ;  and  the  principles  which  he 

upheld,  though  his  opponents  might  rail  at  equality  of 

MS'  suffrage,  and  demand  for  the  man  of  wealth  as  many 
votes  as  he  held  estates,  necessarily  became  the  princi- 
ples of  the  colony. 

1691.  There  existed  in  the  province  no  party  which  would 
sacrifice  colonial  freedom.     Even  the  legislature,  com- 
posed of  the  deadly  enemies  of  Leisler,  asserted  the 
right  to  a  representative  government,  and  to  English 
liberties,  to  be  inherent  in  the  people,  and  not  a  conse- 
quence of  the  royal  favor.     This  act  received  the  veto 
of  King  William.     "  No  tax  whatever  shall  be  levied 
on  his  majestie's  subjects  in  the  province,  or  on  their 
estates,  on  any  pretence  whatsoever,  but  by  the  act  and 
consent  of  the  representatives  of  the  people  in  general 
assembly  convened  :  " — "  supreme  legislative  power  be- 
longs to  the  governor  and  council,  and  to  the  people  by 
their  representatives :  " — such  was  the  voice  of  the  most 
royalist  assembly  that  could  ever  be  convened  in  New 

1697.  York.  What  though  the  enactment  was  annulled  by  the 
English  sovereign  ?  The  spirit  lived,  and  was  openly 
displayed.  It  was  soon  said  by  a  royal  governor  to 
the  mixed  races  of  legislators  in  the  province,  "  There 
are  none  of  you  but  what  are  big  with  the  privileges 
of  Englishmen  and  Magna  Charta." 

1692.  In  the  administration  of  the  covetous  and  passionate 
Fletcher,  a  man  of  great  mobility  and  feeble  judgment, 
the  people  of  New  York  were  soon  disciplined  into 
more  decided  resistance.     As  to  territory,  the  old  hope 
of  extending  from  Connecticut  River  to  Delaware  Bay 
revived  ;  and,  for  the  security  of  the  central  province, 
the  command  of  the  militia  of  New  Jersey  and  Con- 
necticut was,  by  a   royal   commission,  conferred   on 
Fletcher. 


NEW   YORK.  57 

An  address  was  also  sent  to  the  king,  representing  CHAP 
the  great  cost  of  defending  the  frontiers,  and  requesting  ^v^ 
that  the  neighboring  colonies  might  be  compelled  to 
contribute  to  the  protection  of  Albany.  In  the  neces- 
sity of  common  defence  lay  the  root  of  the  parlia- 
mentary attempt  at  taxation  ;  for  it  created  the  desire 
of  a  central  will,  and  this  desire  looked  sometimes  to 
the  English  monarch  as  the  fountain  of  sovereignty, 
sometimes  to  the  idea  of  a  confederacy  of  the  colonies, 
and  at  last  to  the  action  of  parliament.  In  this  age,  1695, 
it  led  only  to  instructions.  All  the  colonies  north  of 
Carolina  were  directed  to  furnish  quotas  for  the  de- 
fence of  New  York  or  the  attacks  on  Canada ;  but  the 
instructions,  though  urgently  renewed,  were  never 
enforced,  and  were  by  some  colonies  openly  dis- 
regarded. 

In  its  relations  towards  Canada,  New  York  shared 
the  strong  passion  for  conquest  which  gradually  ex- 
tended to  all  the  colonies.  In  its  internal  affairs,  bor- 
dering on  Puritan  New  England,  it  is  the  most  northern 
colony  that  admitted  by  enactment  the  partial  estab- 
lishment of  the  Anglican  Church.  The  time  had 
passed  when  religious  sects  constituted  the  forms  under 
which  political  questions  were  discussed.  The  Pres- 
byterians had  never  had  dominion  in  New  York,  but 
had  originally  introduced  themselves  under  compacts 
with  the  Dutch  government.  The  original  settlers 
from  Holland  were  Calvinists,  yet  with  a  church  or- 
ganization far  less  popular  than  the  system  of  New 
England,  and  having  many  points  of  sympathy  with 
the  ecclesiastical  polity  of  Episcopacy.  During  the 
ascendency  of  the  Dutch,  the  established  authority  of 
their  church  had  often  been  asserted  in  an  exclusive 
spirit ;  when  the  colony  became  English,  the  conquest 

VOL.  III.  8 


58  NEW   YORK. 

CHAP,  was  made  by  men  devoted  to  the  English  throne  and 

— the  English  Church,  and  the  influence  of  Churchmen 

was  at  once  predominant  in  the  council.  The  idea 
of  toleration  was  still  imperfect  in  New  Netherlands ; 
equality  among  religious  sects  was  unknown.  It  is 
not  strange,  therefore,  that  the  efforts  of  Fletcher  to 
privilege  the  English  Church  were  partially  successful. 
The  house  framed  a  bill,  in  which  they  established 
certain  churches  and  ministers,  reserving  also  the  right 
of  presentation  to  the  vestry-men  and  church-wardens. 
The  governor  interpreted  the  act  by  limiting  its  mean- 
ing to  the  English  service,  and  framed  an  amendment 
giving  the  right  of  presentation  to  the  representa- 
tive of  the  crown.  The  assembly  asserted  it  for  the 
people,  rejecting  the  amendment.  "  Then  I  must  tell 
you,"  retorted  Fletcher,  this  "  seems  very  unmannerly. 
There  never  was  an  amendment  desired  by  the  council 
board,  but  what  was  rejected.  It  is  a  sign  of  a  stub- 
born ill  temper.  I  have  the  power  of  collating  or 
suspending  any  minister  in  my  government  by  their 
majesties'  letters  patent;  and,  whilst  I  stay  in  this 
government,  I  will  take  care  that  neither  heresy, 
schism,  or  rebellion,  be  preached  among  you,  nor  vice 
and  profanity  encouraged.  You  seem  to  take  the 
whole  power  into  your  hands,  and  set  up  for  every 
thing." 

if>95  The  "  stubborn  temper"  of  the  house  was  immova 
ble ;  and,  two  years  afterwards,  that  the  act  might  not  be 
construed  too  narrowly,  it  was  declared  that  the  vestry- 
men and  church-wardens  of  the  church  established  in 
New  York  might  call  a  dissenting  Protestant  minister. 
Not  a  tenth  part  of  the  population  of  that  day  adhered 
to  the  Episcopal  Church ;  the  public  spirit  demanded 
toleration  ;  and  if,  on  the  one  hand,  the  English  Church 


NEW   YORK.  59 

succeeded  in  engrossing  the  provision  made  by  the  CHAP 
ministry  acts,  on  the  other,  the  dissenters  were  wa-   -^ — 
kened  to  jealousy,  lest  the  Episcopal  party,  deriving 
countenance  from  England,  might  nourish  a  lust  for 
dominion. 

The  differences  were  tranquillized  in  the  short  ad- 
ministration of  the  kindlier  earl  of  Bellamont,  an  Irish 
peer,  with  a  sound  heart  and  honorable  sympathies  for 
popular  freedom.  He  arrived  in  New  York  after  the 
peace  of  Ryswick,  with  a  commission  extending  to  the  1698 
borders  of  Canada,  including  all  the  northern  British  A|™ 
possessions,  except  Connecticut  and  Rhode  Island.  In 
New  York,  Lord  Bellamont,  who  had  served  on  the 
committee  of  parliament  to  inquire  into  the  trials  of 
Leisler  and  Milborne,  was  indifferent  to  the  little  oli- 
garchy of  the  royal  council,  of  which  he  reproved  the 
vices  and  resisted  the  selfishness.  The  memory  of  the 
wrongs  of  Leisler  was  revived  ;  and  the  assembly,  by 
an  appropriation  of  its  own  in  favor  of  his  family,  con- 
firmed the  judgment  of  the  English  parliament. 

The  enforcement  of  the  acts  of  trade,  which  had 
been  violated  by  the  connivance  of  men  appointed  to 
execute  them ;  the  suppression  of  piracy,  which,  as 
the  turbulent  offspring  of  long  wars  and  of  the  false 
principles  of  the  commercial  systems  of  that  age,  in- 
fested every  sea  from  America  to  China, — were  the 
great  purposes  of  Bellamont ;  yet  for  both  he  accom- 
plished little.  The  acts  of  trade,  despotic  in  their 
nature,  contradicting  the  rights  of  humanity,  were 
evaded  every  where  ;  but  in  New  York,  a  city,  in  part, 
of  aliens,  owing  allegiance  to  England,  without  the 
bonds  of  common  history,  kindred,  and  tongue,  they 
were  disregarded  without  scruple.  No  voice  of  con- 
science declared  their  violation  a  moral  offence  ;  respect 


60  NEW   YORK. 

CHAP,  for  them  was  but  a  calculation  of  chances.     In  the 
xix.  .  .  .   P  . 

- attempt  to  suppress  piracy,  the  prospect   of  infinite 

booty  to  be  recovered  from  pirates,  or  to  be  won  from 
the  enemies  of  England,  had  gained  from  the  king 
and  the  admiralty  a  commission  for  William  Kidd,  and 
had  deluded  Bellamont  into  a  partnership  in  a  pri- 
n£nt"in  vate  expedition.     Failing  in  his  hopes  of  opulence, 
ofuc"ms-  Kidd  found  his  way  as  a  pirate  to  the  gallows.     In  the 
h°use  of  commons,  the  transaction  provoked  inquiry, 
.  and  hardly  escaped  censure. 

On  questions  of  finance,  the  popularity  of  Bellamont 
prevented  collisions  by  an  honest  promise, — "  I  will 
pocket  none  of  the  public  money  myself,  nor  shall 
there  be  any  embezzlement  by  others ;  " — and  the 
necessity  of  the  promise  is  the  strongest  commentary 
upon  the  character  of  his  predecessors.  The  confiding 
house  of  representatives  voted  a  revenue  for  six  years, 
and  placed  it,  as  before,  at  the  disposition  of  the  gov- 
ernor. His  death  interrupted  the  short  period  of  har- 
mony in  the  colony ;  and,  happily  for  New  York,  Lord 
Cornbury,  his  successor,  had  every  vice  of  character 
necessary  to  discipline  a  colony  into  self-reliance  and 
resistance. 

Of  the  same  family  with  the  queen  of  England ; 
brother-in-law  to  a  king,  whose  service  he  had  be- 
trayed ;  the  grandson  of  a  prime  minister ;  himself  heir 
to  an  earldom, — Lord  Cornbury,  destitute  of  the  Virtues 
of  the  aristocracy,  illustrated  the  worst  form  of  its 
arrogance,  joined  to  intellectual  imbecility.  Of  the 
sagacity  of  the  common  mind,  of  its  firmness,  he  knew 
nothing;  of  political  power  he  had  no  conception,  ex- 
cept as  it  emanates  from  the  self-will  of  a  superior; 
to  him  popular  rights  existed  only  as  a  condescension. 
Educated  at  Geneva,  he  yet  loved  Episcopacy,  as  c 


NEW    YORK.  Oi 

religion  of  state  subordinate  to  executive  power.     And  CHAP, 
now,  at  about  forty  years  of  age,  with  self-will  and  the  -^^ 
pride  of  rank  for  his  counsellors,  without  fixed  princi- 
ples, without  perception  of  political    truth,  he  stood 
among  the   plebeians  of  New  Jersey  and  the  mixed 
people  of  New  York  as  their  governor. 

The  royalists  anticipated  his  arrival  with  the  incense  1702 
of  flattery ;  and  the  hospitality  of  the  colony,  which 
was  not  yet  provoked  to  defiance,  elected  a  house  of 
assembly  disposed  to  confide  in  the  integrity  of  one 
who  had  been  represented  as  a  friend  to  Presbyterians. 
The  expenses  of  his  voyage  were  compensated  by  a 
grant  of  two  thousand  pounds,  and  an  annual  revenue 
for  the  public  service  provided  for  a  period  of  seven 
years.  In  April,  1703,  a  further  grant  was  made  of 
fifteen  hundred  pounds  to  fortify  the  Narrows,  "  and 
for  no  other  use  whatever."  But  should  Lord  Corn- 
bury  regard  the  limitations  of  a  provincial  assembly  ? 
The  money,  by  his  warrant,  disappeared  from  the 
treasury,  while  the  Narrows  were  still  defenceless ; 
and  the  assembly,  awakened  to  distrust,  by  addresses  1703 
to  the  governor  and  the  queen,  solicit  a  treasurer  of  its  i9.e 
own  appointment. 

The  general  revenue  had  been  fixed  for  a  period  of 
years ;  no  new  appropriations  could  be  extorted  ;  and,  1704 
heedless  of  menaces  or  solicitation,  the  representatives 
of  the  people  asserted  "  the  rights  of  the  house."  Lord 
Cornbury  expressed  his  whole  character  as  a  statesman 
in  his  answer :  "I  know  of  no  right  that  you  have  as 
an  assembly,  but  such  as  the  queen  is  pleased  to  allow 
you." 

The  firmness  of  the  assembly  won  its  first  victory;  1705 
for  the  queen  permitted  specific  appropriations  of  inci- 
dental grants  of  money,  and  the  appointment  by  the 


62  NEW   YORK. 

CHAP,  general  assembly  of  its  own  treasurer  to  take  charge 

— -N^  of  extraordinary  supplies. 

In  affairs  relating  to  religion,  Lord  Cornbury  was 
equally  imperious,  disputing  generally  the  ,  right  of 
either  minister  or  schoolmaster  to  exercise  his  vocation 
without  his  license.  The  question  of  the  freedom  of 
the  pulpit  no  longer  included  the  whole  question  of  in- 
tellectual freedom  ;  the  victory  for  toleration  had  been 
won  ;  and  the  spirit  of  political  freedom  found  its  organ 
in  the  provincial  legislature.  The  captious  reference 
to  the  standing  instructions  in  favor  of  the  English 
Church,  sometimes  encouraging  arbitrary  acts  of  power 
in  its  behalf,  and  always  tending  to  bias  every  question 
in  its  favor,  led  only  to  acts  of  petty  tyranny,  useless 
to  English  interests,  and  benefiting  the  people  by  com 
pelling  their  active  vigilance.  The  power  of  the  people 
redressed  the  griefs.  If  Francis  Makemie,  a  Pres- 
byterian, was  indicted  for  preaching  without  a  license 
from  the  governor;  if  the  chief  justice  advised  a  special 
verdict, — the  jury,  composed,  it  is  said,  of  Episcopalians, 
constituted  themselves  the  judges  of  the  law,  and  read- 
ily agreed  on  an  acquittal.  In  like  manner,  at  Jamaica, 
the  church  which  the  whole  town  had  erected,  was,  by 
the  connivance  of  Lord  Cornbury,  reserved  exclusively 
for  the  Episcopalians — an  injustice  which  was  after- 
wards reversed  in  the  colonial  courts. 

1708.  Twice  had  Lord  Cornbury  dissolved  the  assembly. 
The  third  which  he  convened  proved  how  rapidly  the 
political  education  of  the  people  had  advanced.  Dutch, 
English,  and  New  England  men,  were  all  of  one  spirit 
The  rights  of  the  people,  with  regard  to  taxation,  to 
courts  of  law,  to  officers  of  the  crown,  were  asserted 
with  an  energy  to  which  the  governor  could  offer  no 
resistance.  Without  presence  of  mind,  subdued  by 


NEW   JERSEY.  CK> 

i 

the  colonial  legislature,  and  now  appearing  dispirited  CHA? 
as  he  was  indigent,  he  submitted  to  the  ignominy  of  ^-^ 
reproof,  and  thanked  the  assembly  for  the  simplest  act 
of  justice. 

Shall  we  glance  at  his  career  in  New  Jersey  ?  There 
are  the  same  demands  for  money,  and  a  still  more  wary 
refusal;  representatives,  elected  by  a  majority  of  votes,  1704 
excluded  by  the  governor ;  assemblies  convened,  and 
angrily  dissolved.  At  last,  necessity  compels  a  third 
assembly,  and  among  its  members  are  Samuel  Jennings 
and  Lewis  Morris.  The  latter  was  of  a  liberal  mind, 
yet  having  no  fixed  system ;  intrepid,  but  not  exclu- 
sive. The  former,  elected  speaker  of  the  assembly, 
was  a  true  Quaker,  of  a  hasty  yet  benevolent  temper, 
faithful  in  his  affections,  "  stiff  and  impracticable  in 
politics."  These  are  they  whom  Lord  Cornbury  de- 
scribes "  as  capable  of  any  thing  but  good  ; "  whom 
Quarry  and  other  subservient  counsellors  accuse  as 
"  turbulent  and  disloyal,"  "  encouraging  the  govern- 
ments in  America  to  throw  off  the  royal  prerogative, 
declaring  openly  that  the  rqyal  instructions  bind  no 
further  than  they  are  warranted  by  law."  The  as- 
sembly, according  to  the  usage  of  that  day,  wait  on  1797 
the  governor  with  their  remonstrance.  The  Quaker 
speaker  reads  it  for  them  most  audibly.  It  charges 
Lord  Cornbury  with  accepting  bribes  ;  it  deals  sharply 
with  "  his  new  methods  of  government,"  his  "  en- 
croachment "  on  the  popular  liberties  by  "  assuming  a 
negative  voice  to  the  freeholders'  election  of  their  repre- 
sentatives ;  "  "  they  have  neither  heads,  hearts,  nor  souls, 
that  are  not  forward  with  their  utmost  power  lawfully 
to  redress  the  miseries  of  their  country." — "  Stop ! ' 
exclaimed  Lord  Cornbury,  as  the  undaunted  Quakei 
delivered  the  remonstrance;  and  Jennings  meekly  and 


64  NEW    YORK. 

CHAP,  distinctly  repeated  the  charges,  with  greater  emphasis 
^^  than  before.  What  could  Lord  Cornbury  do?  He 
attempted  to  retort,  charging  the  Quakers  with  dis- 
loyalty and  faction ;  and  they  answered,  in  the  words 
of  Nehemiah  to  Sanballat,  "  There  is  no  such  thing 
done  as  thou  sayest,  but  thou  feignest  them  out  of 
thine  own  heart."  And  they  left,  for  the  instruction 
of  future  governors,  this  weighty  truth  : — "  To  engage 
the  affections  of  the  people,  no  artifice  is  needful,  but 
to  let  them  be  unmolested  in  the  enjoyment  of  what 
belongs  to  them  of  right." 

Lord  Cornbury  had  fulfilled  his  mission ;  more  suc- 
cessful than  any  patriot,  he  had  taught  New  York  the 
necessity  and   the    methods   of  incipient   resistance. 
17°.?-  The  assembly  which  met  Lord  Lovelace,  his  shortlived 

April.  * 

successor,  began  the  contest  that  was  never  to  cease 
but  with  independence.  The  crown  demanded  a  per- 
manent revenue,  without  appropriation ;  New  York 
henceforward  would  raise  only  an  annual  revenue,  and 
appropriate  it  specifically. 

Such  was  the  inheritance  of  controversies  provided 
for  Robert  Hunter,  the  friend  of  Swift,  an  adventurer, 
who  came  to  his  government  in  quest  of  good  cheer. 
"  Here,"  he  writes,  "  is  the  finest  air  to  live  upon  in 
the  universe  :  the  soil  bears  all  things,  but  not  for  me  ; 
for,  according  to  the  custom  of  the  country,  the  sachems 
are  the  poorest  of  the  people."  "  Sancho  Panza,"  he 
avers,  "  was  indeed  but  a  type  of  me." 
1710.  In  less  than  five  months  after  his  arrival,  he  was 
disputing  with  an  assembly.  The  house,  to  prevent 
misapplications  of  the  public  revenue,  secured  to  iheir 
own  treasurer  a  check  on  payments  ;  the  council  nega- 
tived the  restraint  on  the  governor's  prerogative ,  nc 
compromise  could  be  made,  and  a  prorogation  followed 


NEW    YORK.  65 

In  the  following  spring,  Hunter  bade  the  assembly  OHA?. 
beware,  "  lest  some  insinuations,  much  repeated  of  late  ^^ 
years,  should  gain   credit  at  last,  that,  however  their  17n 
resentment  has  fallen  upon  the  governor,  it  is  the  gov- 
ernment  they  dislike  ;  "   and    the   house,  remaining 
inflexible,  was  dissolved. 

The  desire  to  conquer  Canada  prevailed,  in  the  sum- 
mer of  1711,  to  obtain  a  specific  grant  of  bills  of  credit 
for  £10,000;  but  no  concession  was  made  in  regard 
to  the  ordinary  expenses  of  the  government. 

The  contest  was  again  renewed.  The  council, 
claiming  the  right  to  make  amendments  to  the  money 
bills,  asserted  that  the  house,  like  itself,  existed  only 
"  by  the  mere  grace  of  the  crown."  The  assembly,  de- 
fying the  opinion  of  the  lords  of  trade,  as  concluding 
nothing,  rose  to  the  doctrine  required  by  the  emer- 
gency. The  share  of  the  council  in  legislation,  they 
agree,  comes  "  from  the  mere  pleasure  of  the  prince  ;  " 
but  for  themselves  they  claim  an  "  inherent  right  "  to 
legislation,  spinging  "  not  from  any  commission  or 
grant  from  the  crown,  but  from  the  free  choice  and  elec- 
tion of  the  people,  who  ought  not,  nor  justly  can,  be 
divested  of  their  property  without  their  consent." 

In  1712,  the  same  spirit  was  manifested.  Hunter  1712. 
cannot  effectually  obey  the  lords  of  trade.  They  in- 
struct him  as  to  what  the  legislature  shall  do,  and  the 
legislature  is  inflexible.  "  I  am  used  like  a  dog," 
wrote  the  really  well-disposed  man ;  and,  again,  "  I 
have  spent  three  years  in  such  torment  and  vexation, 
that  nothing  in  life  can  ever  make  amends  for  it." 
Concession  and  philosophical  indifference  afterwards 
gave  him  calm ;  but  the  spirit  roused  in  New  York  was 
never  lulled. 

New  York  would  willingly,  after  the  revolution,  have 

VOL.  III.  9 


66  CONNECTICUT. 

CHAP,  extended  her  boundary  over  a  part  of  Connecticut ;  but 
JV.JL.A.* 

the  people  of  the  colony  themselves  vindicated  its  lib- 
erties and  the  integrity  of  its  territory. 

1689.  Governor  Treat  having  resumed  his  office,  the  as- 
sembly, which  soon  convened,  obeying  the  declared 
opinion  of  the  freemen,  organized  the  government  ac- 
cording to  their  charter. 

May        On  the  joyful  news  of  the  accession  of  William  and 
Mary,  every  fear  vanished,  every  countenance  bright- 
ened with  joy.     "  Great  was  that  day,"  said  the  loyal 
i 
13. 


June   address  of  Connecticut  to  King  William,  "  when  the 


Lord,  who  sitteth  upon  the  floods,  did  divide  his  and 
your  adversaries  like  the  waters  of  Jordan,  and  did  be- 
gin to  magnify  you  like  Joshua,  by  the  deliverance  of 
the  English  dominions  from  Popery  and  slavery.  Be- 
cause the  Lord  loved  Israel  forever,  therefore  hath  he 
made  you  king,  to  do  justice  and  judgment."  And, 
describing  their  acquiescence  in  the  rule  of  Andros  as 
"  an  involuntary  submission  to  an  arbitrary  power," 
they  announce  that,  by  the  consent  of  the  major  part 
of  the  freemen,  they  have  themselves  resumed  the 

539. 

government. 

1690.  In  prosecuting  its  claim  in  London,  Whiting,  the 
agent  of  Connecticut,  was  aided  by  all  the  influence 
which  the  religious  sympathy  of  the  Presbyterians 
could  enlist  for  New  England.  The  English  corpora- 
tions had  been  restored ;  and  Edward  Ward  gave  his 
opinion,  that  a  surrender,  of  which  no  legal  record  ex- 
isted, did  not  invalidate  a  patent.  Somers  assented* 
"  There  is  no  ground  of  doubt,"  reiterated  George 
Treby.  And  the  sanctity  attached  to  the  democratic 
charter  and  government  of  Connecticut,  is  the  most 
honorable  proof  of  the  respect  which  was  cherished 
by  the  revolution  of  1688  for  every  existing  franchise 


CONNECTICUT.  67 

Thus  was  the  rule  of  the  people  restored.     They  CHAP. 
elected  their  own  governor,  council,  and  assembly-men,  ^^i 
all  their  magistrates,  and  all  annually.     Connecticut 
was  the  most  perfect  democracy  which  had  ever  been 
organized.     It  rested  on  free  labor,  and  upheld,  equal- 
ity :  the  people  were  the  sources  of  all  power. 

The  English  crown  would  willingly  have  resumed, 
at  least,  the  command  of  the  militia,  which,  after  hav- 
ing been,  at  one  time,  assigned  to  the  governor  of  Mas- 
sachusetts, by  whom  it  was  never  challenged,  was 
claimed  as  a  part  of  the  royal  prerogative,  and  conferred  1692 
on  the  governor  of  New  York.  The  legislature  resisted, 
and  referred  the  question  to  the  people,  who  resolved 
on  a  petition  to  the  king,  by  the  hands  of  Fitz  John  gept 
Winthrop.  To  give  the  command  of  the  militia,  it 
was  said,  to  the  governor  of  another  colony,  is,  in  ef- 
fect, to  put  our  persons,  interests,  and  liberties  entirely 
into  his  power :  by  our  charter,  the  governor  and  com- 
pany themselves  have  a  commission  of  command. 

Meantime,  Fletcher,  refusing  to  await  the  decision  1 693 
in  England,  appeared  in  Hartford,  and,  after  fruitless 
negotiation,  ordered  its  militia  under  arms,   that   he 
might  beat  up  for  volunteers  for  the  war. 

Hartford  was  then  a  small,  but  delightful  township, 
with  its  meeting-house  and  cluster  of  dwellings,  built 
on  land  just  above  the  rich  meadows,  which  the  love- 
ly Connecticut  annually  overflows — a  community  of 
farmers,  the  unmixed  progeny  of  Puritans.  William 
Wadsworth,  the  senior  captain  of  the  town,  walked 
in  front  of  the  assembled  train-bands,  "  busy  in  ex- 
ercising them."  Fletcher  advances,  to  assume  com- 
mand, ordering  Bayard,  of  New  York,  to  read  his 
commission  and  the  royal  instructions. 

It  is  the  fortune  of  our  America,  that  if,  at  any  mo- 


68  CONNECTICUT. 

CHAP,  ment,  the  happiness  of  a  state  depended  on  the  will  of 

'  one  man,  that  man  was  true  to  his  duty.     At  the"  order 

of  Captain  Wadsworth,  the  drums  began  to  roll,  beat- 
ing some  of  the  old  marches  that  may  have  been  handed 
down  from  the  veterans  of  Gustavus  or  the  volunteers 
of  Naseby.  The  petulant  Fletcher  commanded  silence. 
"  I  will  not " — such  had  been  his  words  to  the  governor 
of  Connecticut — "  I  will  not  set  my  foot  out  of  this 
colony,  till  I  have  seen  his  majesty's  commission 
obeyed ;  "  and  Bayard,  of  New  York,  once  more  began 
to  read.  Once  more  the  drums  beat.  "  Silence ! ' 
exclaimed  Fletcher.  "  Drum,  drum,  I  say  !  "  shouted 
Wadsworth,  adding,  as  he  turned  to  the  governor  of 
New  York,  "  If  I  am  interrupted  again,  I  will  make 
the  sun  shine  through  you  in  a  moment."  Fletcher  was 
daunted  ;  and,  as  the  excited  people  came  swarming 
into  Hartford,  in  spite  of  his  expressed  determination, 
he  fled  from  the  scene  to  his  government  in  New 
York.  S,\ 

1694  In  England,  the  king,  in  council,  decided,  on  the 
Af£*  advice  of  Ward  and  Treves,  that  the  ordinary  power 
of  the  militia  in  Connecticut,  and  in  Rhode  Island,  be- 
longed to  their  respective  governments  ;  and  Winthrop, 
returning  from  his  agency  to  a  joyful  welcome,  was 
soon  elected  governor  of  a  colony  of  which  he  had 
asserted  the  freedom. 

The  decisions  which  established  the  rights  of  Con- 
necticut included  those  of  Rhode  Island.  The  assaults 
of  the  royalists  were  always  made  upon  the  more  power- 
ful colony,  in  the  assurance  that  the  fate  of  both  would 
be  included  in  its  overthrow.  These  two  common- 
wealths were  the  portion  of  the  British  empire  distin- 
guished above  all  others  by  the  largest  liberty.  Each 
presented  the  anomaly  of  a  nearly  absolute  democracy 


RHODE  ISLAND.  ^    69 

under  the  shelter  of  a  monarchy.     But  the  results  in  CHAP 

XIX 

the  two  were  not  strictly  parallel. '- 

Rhode  Island  had  asserted  entire  freedom  of  mind  ;  it 
had,  therefore,  apparently,  less  unity  in  its  population, 
and  less  cohesion.  In  consequence,  it  was  inferior  in  all 
that  required  joint  action,  but  had,  perhaps,  a  greater 
regard  for  personal  liberty  and  independence.  No 
bitter  conflict  with  the  crown  had  excited  any  deep 
hostilities  ;  and  the  colony  yielded,  for  a  season,  to  quiet 
influence,  what  it  might  have  refused  to  force  or  en- 
treaty. It  interpolated  into  the  statute-book  the  exclu- 
sion of  Papists  from  the  established  equality.  Less 
liberal  than  Connecticut,  it  attached  the  franchise,  not 
"  to  the  inhabitant,"  but  to  the  soil ;  and,  as  a  wrong 
principle  always  leads  to  practical  error,  it  fostered 
family  pride,  by  a  distant  imitation  of  the  English  law 
of  primogeniture. 

In  Connecticut,  no  other  influence  gave  a  bias,  ex- 
cept that  of  the  Puritan  clergy,  who  were  there,  and 
there  only,  consociated  by  the  legislature.     And  it  was 
first  the  custom,  and  afterwards  the  order,  that  "the  1708 
ministers  of  the  gospel  should  preach  a  sermon  on  the 
day  appointed  by  law  for  the  choice  of  civil  rulers, 
proper  for   the  direction   of  the  towns   in    the  work   Trum- 
before  them."  1.433. 

But  danger  was  not  passed.  The  crown,  reserving 
to  itself  the  right  of  appeal,  had  still  a  method  of  inter- 
fering in  the  internal  concerns  of  the  little  republics. 
Besides,  their  charters  were  never  safe  ;  absolute  sove- 
reignty being  claimed  in  England,  their  freedom  rested 
on  forbearance.  Both  were  included  among  the  colo- 
nies in  which  the  lords  of  trade  advised  a  complete 
Restoration  of  the  prerogatives  of  the  crown.  Both  170J 
were  named  in  the  bill  which  was  introduced  into  par- 


70  CONNECTICUT  AND   RHODE    ISLAND. 

CHAP,  liament  for  the  abrogation  of   all  American  charters. 

'-  The  journals  of  the  house  of  lords  relate  that  Con- 

17°  V  necticut  was  publicly  heard  against  the  bill,  contending 
that  its  liberties  were  held  by  contract,  in  return  for 
services  that  had  been  performed ;  that  the  taking 
away  of  so  many  charters  would  destroy  all  confidence 
in  royal  promises,  and  would  afford  a  precedent  danger- 
ous to  all  the  chartered  corporations  of  England.  Yet 
the  bill  was  read  a  second  time,  and  its  principle,  as 
applied  to  colonies,  was  advocated  by  the  mercantile 
interest  and  by  "  great  men  "  in  England.  The  im- 
pending war  with  the  French  postponed  the  purpose 
till  the  accession  of  the  house  of  Hanover. 

But   the  object  was  not  left  out  of  mind.     Lord 
Cornbury,  who  had  in  vain  solicited  money  of  Con- 

1703.  necticut,  wrote  home,  that  "  this  vast  continent  would 

June. 

Trum  never  ke  usenjl  to  England,  till  all  the  proprietary  and 
ft.  charter  governments  were  brought  under  the  crown." 
Quarry,  also,  reported  to  the  lords  of  trade,  that  "  the 
roguery  and  villany  of  Connecticut  were  enough  to  fill 
a  volume  ;  "  and,  appealing  to  the  powerful  sympathy 
in  the  English  policy  of  that  age,  declared  that,  "  if  the 
government  be  continued  longer  in  these  men's  hands, 
the  honest  trade  of  these  parts  will  be  ruined."  And 
Dudley,  a  native  New  England  man,  now  governor  of 
Massachusetts,  took  the  lead  in  the  conspiracy  against 
the  liberties  of  New  England,  preparing  a  volume  of 
complaints,  and  urging  the  appointment  of  a  governor 
1705  over  Connecticut  by  the  royal  prerogative.  These,  and 
their  associates,  are  the  men  who  first  filled  the  world 
with  calumnies  against  that  commonwealth.  The 
lords  of  trade  were  too  just  to  condemn  the  colony 
unheard,  and  it  succeeded  in  its  vindication ;  only  an 
obsolete  law  against  Quakers,  which  had  never  been 


MASSACHUSETTS.  71 

enforced,  after  furnishing  an  excuse  for  outcries  against  CHAP 

XIX 

Puritan  intolerance,  was  declared  null  and  void  by  the  ^^ 
queen  in  council. 

The  insurrection  in  Boston,  which  had  overthrown  cJller9 

1  ost- 

the  dominion  of  Andros,  had  sprung  spontaneously  from  eS?ri£& 
the  people.  Among  the  magistrates,  arid  especially  and  205 
among  the  ministers,  some  distrusted  every  popular  fonTto 

Increase 

movement,  and  sought  to  control  a  revolution,  of  which 
they  feared  the  tendency.     The  insurgent  people  in- 
sisted  on  the  restoration  of  the  colonial  charter ;  but 
Cotton  Mather,  claiming  only  English  liberties,  and  nS,?. 
not  charter  liberties,  and  selfishly  jealous  of  popular  £££$, 
power,  was  eager  to  thwart  the  design ;  and,  against   wwds, 
the  opinion  of  the  venerable  Bradstreet,  the  charter  1689 
magistrates,  joining  to  themselves  "  the  principal  inhab-    20. 
itants  "  of  Boston,  became  a  self-constituted  "  council    Calef 
for  the  safety  of  the  people."     Thus  was  the  popular 
will  defeated.     It  had  demanded  its  ancient  liberties  ; 
and  the  men  on  whom  it  was  compelled  to  rely,  consti- 
tuting themselves  its  guardians,  "  humbly  "  waited  "  for    *ds~ 
direction  of  the  crown  of  England."     Thus  was  lost    L34° 
the  only  opportunity  for  Massachusetts  to  vindicate  its 
sequestered  freedom.     "  Had  they,  at  that  time," — it 
is  the  confession  of  Increase  Mather, — "  entered  upon 
the  full  exercise  of  their  charter  government,  as  their 
undoubted  right,  wise  men  in  England  were  of  opinion  ej!ga^ 
they  might  have  gone  on  without  disturbance."  ™UX' 

When  the  convention  of  the  people  assembled,  they,  ir>89. 
too,  were  jealous  of  their  ancient  privileges.  Instead 
of  recognizing  the  self-constituted  council,  they  exclu- 
ded the  new  associates,  and  declared  the  governor, 
deputy-governor,  and  assistants,  chosen  and  sworn  in 
1686,  according  to  charter  rights,  and  the  deputies  sent 
by  the  freemen  of  the  towns,  to  be  the  government 


72  MASSACHUSETTS. 

CHAP,  now  settled  in  the  colony.     The  council  resisted  ;  and 
-^  the  question  was  referred  to  the  people.     Nearly  four 


f  tne  towris  instructed  their  representatives  to 
22.  reassume  ;  but  the  pertinacity  of  a  majority  of  the 
council  permitted  only  a  compromise.  In  June,  the 
representatives,  upon  a  new  choice,  assembled  in  Bos- 
ton. Again  they  refuse  to  act,  till  the  old  charter  offi- 
cers shall  assume  their  power  as  of  right.  The  council 
accepted  the  condition,  but  still  as  subject  to  directions 
from  England.  Indeed,  the  time  had  gone  by.  Al- 
ready an  address  to  King  William  had  contained  the 
assurance  that  "  they  had  not  entered  upon  the  full 
exercise  of  the  charter  government,"  and  was  soon 
ansvvered  by  the  royal  assent  to  the  temporary  organi- 
zation which  the  council  had  adopted.  But  the  popu 
lar  party,  jealous  of  the  dispositions  of  Increase  Mather, 
joined  with  him,  in  the  agency  for  New  England,  Sir 
Henry  Ashurst  and  two  of  their  own  adherents,  the 
patriot  Elisha  Cooke,  and  the  honest  but  less  able 
Thomas  Oakes. 

A  revolution  in  opinion  was  impending.  The  refor- 
mation had  rested  truth  on  the  Bible,  as  the  Catholic 
church  had  rested  it  on  tradition  ;  and  a  slavish  inter- 
pretation of  the  Bible  had  led  to  a  blind  idolatry  of  the 
book.  But  true  religion  has  no  alliance  with  bondage  ; 
and,  as  the  spirit  of  the  reformation,  which  was  but  d 
less  perfect  form  of  freedom  of  mind,  was  advancing, 
reason  was  summoned  to  interpret  the  records  of  the 
past,  and  to  separate  time-hallowed  errors  from  truths 
of  the  deepest  moment.  The  statute-book,  in  obedi- 
ence to  this  adoration  of  the  letter,  had  asserted  the 
existence  of  witchcraft  by  establishing  death  as  its 
penalty  ;  sustaining  both  the  superstition  and  its  pun- 
ishment by  reference  to  the  Jewish  records. 


MASSACHUSETTS.  73 


New  England,  like  Canaan,  had  been  settled  by 
fugitives.  Like  the  Jews,  they  had  fled  to  a  wilder-  v  - 
ness  ;  like  the  Jews,  they  looked  to  heaven  for  a  light  l688 
to  lead  them  on  ;  like  the  Jews,  they  had  no  supreme 
ruler  but  God  ;  like  the  Jews,  they  had  heathen  for  their 
foes  ;  and  they  derived  their  legislation  from  the  Jewish 
code.  But,  for  the  people  of  New  England,  the  days 
of  Moses  and  of  Joshua  were  past  ;  for  them  there  was 
no  longer  a  promised  land  —  -they  were  in  possession. 
Reason  now  insisted  on  bringing  the  adopted  laws 
to  the  proof,  that  it  might  hold  fast  only  the  good. 
Skepticism  began  to  appear  ;  not  the  giant  skepticism 
which,  in  Europe,  was  beginning  to  overthrow  the  ac- 
cumulated abuses  of  centuries,  but  a  cautious  doubt, 
which  should  eliminate  the  errors  adhering  to  the  glo- 
rious faith  by  which  New  England  had  been  created. 
Belief  in  witchcraft  had  sprung  alike  from  the  letter  of 
the  Mosaic  law  and  from  the  natural  wonder  excited 
by  the  mysteries  of  nature.  Man  feels  that  he  is  a 
dependent  being.  The  reverence  for  universal  laws 
is  implanted  in  his  nature  too  deeply  to  be  removed. 
The  infinite  is  every  where  ;  and  every  where  man  has 
acknowledged  it,  beholding  in  every  power  the  result 
of  an  infinite  attribute.  The  same  truth  superstition 
admits,  yet  disguises,  when  it  fills  the  air  with  spec- 
tres, or  startles  ghosts  among  the  tombs  ;  or  studies  the 
stars  to  cast  a  horoscope  ;  or  gazes  on  the  new  moon 
with  confiding  credulity  ;  or,  yielding  blindly  to  fear, 
beholds  in  the  evil  that  is  in  the  world,  the  present 
malignity  of  Satan.  The  belief  in  witchcraft  had 
fastened  itself  on  the  elements  of  religious  faith, 
and  become  deeply  branded  into  the  common  mind. 
Do  not  despise  the  credulity.  The  people  did  not 
rally  to  the  error;  they  accepted  the  superstition 

VOL.  III.  10 


74  MASSACHUSETTS. 

CHAP,  only  because  it  had   not  jet  been  disengaged  from 

religion. 

1688.  The  same  causes  which  had  given  energy  to  the 
religious  principle  had  given  weight  to  the  ministers. 
In  the  settlement  of  New  England,  the  temple,  or,  as 
it  was  called,  the  meeting-house,  was  the  centre  round 
which  the  people  gathered.  As  the  church  had  suc- 
cessfully assumed  the  exclusive  possession  of  civil 
franchises,  the  ambition  of  the  ministers  had  been  both 
excited  and  gratified.  They  were  not  only  the  coun- 
sellors by  an  unwritten  law ;  they  also  were  the  authors 
of  state  papers,  often  employed  on  embassies,  and,  at 
home,  speakers  at  elections  and  in  town-meetings. 
"  New  England,"  says  Cotton  Mather,  "  being  a  coun- 
try whose  interests  are  remarkably  inwrapped  in  ec- 
clesiastical circumstances,  ministers  ought  to  concern 
themselves  in  politics."  But  their  political  mission 
was  accomplished.  Under  their  guidance,  God's  peo- 
ple had  entered  into  possession  of  the  promised  land, 
and  had  planted  commonwealths  free  from  the  presence 
of  royalty,  of  feudalism,  and  of  prelacy.  The  power  of 
the  ministers  over  the  magistrates,  having  now  no  effect 
but  to  narrow  and  restrain,  reposed  no  longer  on  the 
energy  of  religion,  but  on  a  superstitious  veneration. 
It  is  the  beauty  of  truth  that  nothing  can  rest  upon 
it  but  justice.  The  ministers,  desirous  of  unjust 
influence,  could  build  their  hope  of  it  only  on  error ; 
and  the  struggle  for  greater  freedom  of  mind — the 
struggle  against  superstition,  and  against  the  slavish 
interpretation  of  the  Bible — was  one  with  the  struggle 
against  their  dominion  in  the  state. 

In  the  last  year  of  the  administration  of  Andros, 
who,  as  the  servant  of  arbitrary  power,  had  no  motive 
to  dispel  superstition,  the  daughter  of  John  Goodwin, 


MASSACHUSETTS.  75 

a   child   of  thirteen  years,   charged  a  laundress  with  CHAP. 
having  stolen  linen  from  the  family ;  Glover,  the  mother  ^~ 
of  the  laundress,  a  friendless  emigrant,  almost  ignorant  1688 
of  English,  like  a  true  woman,  with  a  mother's  heart,  SSp 
rebuked  the  false  accusation.     Immediately  the  girl,  p 
to  secure  revenge,  became  bewitched.     The  infection 
spread.     Three  others  of  the  family,  the  youngest  a 
boy  of  less  than  five  years   old,  soon  succeeded   in 
equally  arresting  public  attention.     They  would  affect 
to  be  deaf,  then  dumb,  then  blind,  or  all  three  at  once ; 
they  would  bark  like  dogs,  or  purr  like  so  many  cats  ; 
but  they  ate  well,  and  slept  well.     Cotton  Mather 
went  to  prayer  by  the  side  of  one  of  them,  and,  lo ! 
the  child  lost  her  hearing  till  prayer  was  over.     What 
was  to  be  done  ?     The  four  ministers  of  Boston,  and 
the  one  of  Charlestown,  assembled  in  Goodwin's  house, 
and  spent  a  whole  day  of  fasting  in  prayer.     In  conse- 
quence, the  youngest  child,  the  little  one  of  four  years 
old,  was  "  delivered."     But  if  the  ministers  could  thus 
by  prayer  deliver  a  possessed  child,  then  there  must 
nave  been  a  witch;   the  honor  of  the  ministers   re- 
quired a  prosecution  of  the  affair ;  and  the  magistrates, 
William  Stoughton  being  one  of  the  judges,  and  all 
holding  commissions  exclusively  from  the  English  king, 
and  being  irresponsible  to  the  people  of  Massachusetts, 
with  a  "  vigor  "  which  the  united  ministers  commended   gj{j* 
as   "just,"  made   "  a  discovery  of  the  wicked  instru-    ulm. 
ment  of  the  devil."     The  culprit  was  evidently  a  wild    Jdm 
Irish  woman,  of  a  strange    tongue.     Goodwin,  who   ,£?£'; 
made  the  complaint,  "  had  no  proof  that  could  have    count. 
done  her  any  hurt ;  "  but  "  the  scandalous  old  hag," 
whom   some  thought    "crazed   in    her  intellectuals,'* 
was  bewildered,  and    made   strange    answers,  which 
were    taken   as   confessions ;     sometimes,    in    excite 


76  MASSACHUSETTS. 

CHAP,  ment,  using  her  native  dialect.  One  Hughes  testi- 
*^>~  fied  that,  six  years  before,  she  had  heard  one  Howen 
say  she  had  seen  Glover  come  down  her  chimney. 
It  was  plain  the  prisoner  was  a  Roman  Catholic , 
she  had  never  learned  the  Lord's  prayer  in  English ; 
she  could  repeat  the  paternoster  fluently  enough,  but 
not  quite  correctly :  so  the  ministers  and  Goodwin's 
family  had  the  satisfaction  of  getting  her  con- 
demned as  a  witch,  and  executed.  "  Here,"  it  was 
^nt  proclaimed,  "  was  food  for  faith."  So  desperately 
wicked  is  the  heart  of  man :  the  girl,  who  knew  her- 
self to  be  a  deceiver,  had  no  remorse ;  and  to  the 
ministers,  in  their  self-righteousness,  it  never  occurred 
that  vanity  and  love  of  power  had  blinded  their 
judgment. 

There  were  skeptics  in  Boston.     The  age,  thought 
the  ministers,  "  was  a  debauched  one,"  given  up  "  to 
Sadducism  ;  "  and,  as  the  possessed  damsel  obtained 
no  relief,  Cotton  Mather,  eager  to  learn  the  marvels  of 
the  world  of  spirits,  and  "  wishing  to  confute  the  Sad- 
ducism "  of  his  times,  invited  her  to  his  house ;  and 
the  artful  girl  easily  imposed  upon  his  credulity.     The 
devil  would  permit  her  to  read  in  Quaker  books,  or  the 
Common  Prayer,  or  Popish  books ;  but  a  prayer  from 
Cotton  Mather,  or  a  chapter  from  the  Bible,  would 
throw  her  into  convulsions.     By  a  series  of  experi- 
ments, in    reading  aloucl  passages  from  the  Bible  in 
various  languages,  the  minister  satisfied  himself,  "  by 
trials  of  their  capacity,"  that  devils  are  well  skilled  in 
languages,  and  understand  Latin,  and  Greek,  and  even 
c. Math.  Hebrew;  though  he  fell   "upon  one  inferior  Indian 
Meermo-  language  which  the  daemons  did  not  seem  so  well  to 
I™™,  understand."     Experiments  were  made,  with  unequal 
JL  1689  success,  to  see  if  devils  can  know  the  thoughts  of  others ; 


MASSACHUSETTS.  77 


and  the  inference  was  that  "  all  devils  are  not  alike 
sagacious."  The  vanity  of  Cotton  Mather  was  further 
gratified  ;  for  the  bewitched  girl  would  say  that  the 
demons  could  not  enter  his  study,  and  that  his  own 
person  was  shielded  by  God  against  blows  from  the  p.  27. 
evil  spirits. 

The  revolution  in  New  England  seemed  to  open,  1689 
once  more,  a  career  to  the  ambition  of  ministers.     Yet 
great  obstacles  existed.     The  rapid  progress  of  free 
inquiry  was  alarming.     "  There  are  multitudes  of  Sad- 
ducees  in  our  day,"  sighed  Cotton  Mather.     "  A  devil, 
in  the  apprehension  of  these  mighty  acute  philoso-  c  M,a 
phers,  is  no  more  than  a  quality  or  a  distemper."  —  JJJJ^' 
"We  shall  come,"  he  adds,  "  to  have  no  Christ  but  a    p>14' 
light  within,  and  no  heaven  but  a  frame  of  mind."  — 
"  Men  counted  it  wisdom  to  credit  nothing  but  what 
they  see  and  feel.     They  never  saw  any  witches; 
therefore,  there  are  none."  —  "  How  much,"  add  the 
ministers  of  Boston  and  Charlestown,  "  how  much  this 
fond  opinion  has  gotten  ground,  is  awfully  observable." 
—  "  Witchcraft,"  shouted  Cotton  Mather  from  the  pul- 
pit, "  is  the  most  nefandous  high  treason  against  the 
Majesty  on  high  ;  "  "  a  capital  crime."     "  A  witch  is 
not  to  be  endured  in  heaven  or  on  earth."     And,  be-     Dis- 

courae, 

cause  men  were  skeptical  on  the  subject,  "God  is  Pilo> 
pleased,"  said  the  ministers,  "  to  suffer  devils  to  do 
such  things  in  the  world,  as  shall  stop  the  mouths  of 
gainsayers,  and  extort  a  confession."  The  Discourse 
of  Cotton  Mather  was  therefore  printed,  with  a  copious 
narrative  of  the  recent  case  of  witchcraft.  The  story 
w'is  confirmed  by  Goodwin,  and  recommended  by  all 
the  ministers  of  Boston  and  Charlestown  as  an  answer 
to  atheism,  proving  clearly  that  "  there  is  both  a  God 
and  a  devil,  and  witchcraft  ;  "  and  Cotton  Mather,  an- 


78  MASSACHUSETTS. 

CHAP,  nouncing  himself  as  an  eye-witness,  resolved  hencefor- 
v^v^l>  ward  to  regard  "  the  denial  of  devils,  or  of  witches," 


as  a  personal  affront,  the  evidence  "  of  ignorance,  inci- 
vility,  and  dishonest  impudence." 

P.  46.  This  book,  thus  prepared  and  recommended,  and 
destined  to  have  a  wide  circulation,  was  printed  in 
1689,  and  distributed  through  New  England.  Unhap- 
pily, it  gained  fresh  power  from  England,  where  it  was 
"  published  by  Richard  Baxter,"  who  declared  the  evi- 
dence strong  enough  to  convince  all  but  "  a  very  obdu- 
rate Sadducee." 

This  tale  went  abroad  at  a  moment  when  the  enthu- 
siasm of  the  country  was  engrossed  by  the  hopes  that 
sprung  from  the  accession  of  King  William.  The  con- 
quest of  New  France  was  the  burning  passion  of  New 
England,  in  harmony  with  its  hatred  of  legitimacy  and 
the  old  forms  of  Christianity.  To  subdue  the  French 
dominions  —  this  was  the  joint  object  which  was  to 
foster  a  common  feeling  between  England  and  the 
American  colonies.  This  passion  advanced  even  to 
action,  but,  at  that  time,  was  only  fruitful  of  disasters. 

Meantime,  the  agents  of  Massachusetts,  appealing 
to  the  common  enmity  towards  France,  solicited  a  res- 
toration of  its  charter.  King  William  was  a  friend  to 

1  /"*  Q  O 

March  Calvinists,  and,  on  the  first  interview  with  Increase 
14-  Mather,  conceded  the  recall  of  Sir  Edmund  Andros. 
The  convention  parliament  voted  that  the  taking  away 
of  the  New  England  charters  was  a  grievance  ;  and 
the  English  Presbyterians,  with  singular  affection,  de- 
clared that  "  the  king  could  not  possibly  do  any  thing 
more  grateful  to  his  dissenting  subjects  in  England, 
than  by  restoring  to  New  England  its  former  privi- 
leges." The  dissolution  of  the  convention  parliament, 
followed  by  one  in  which  an  influence  friendly  to  the 


MASSACHUSETTS.  79 

tories  was  perceptible,  destroyed  the  hope  of  relief  from  CHAP 
the  English  legislature :  to  attempt  a  reversal  of  the  >-~^ 
judgment  by  a  writ  of  error  was  hopeless.     There  was 
no  avenue  to  success  but  through  the  favor  of  a  mon- 
arch who  loved  authority.     The  people  of  New  Eng- 
land "  are  like  the  Jews  under  Cyrus,"  said  Wiswall, 
the  agent  for  Plymouth  colony :  with  a  new  monarch 
"  on  the  throne  of  their  oppressors,  they  hope  in  vain 
to  rebuild  their  city  and  their  sanctuary." 

Yet  William  III.  professed  friendship  for  Massachu-  1689. 
setts.  The  hope  of  colonial  conquests  over  the  French 
was  excited ;  his  subjects  in  New  England,  said  In- 
crease Mather,  if  they  could  but  enjoy  "  their  ancient 
rights  and  privileges,"  would  make  him  "  the  emperor 
of  America."  In  the  family  of  Hampden,  Massachu- 
setts inherited  a  powerful  intercessor.  The  countess 
of  Sunderland,  whom  the  Princess,  afterwards  Queen, 
Anne  describes  as  "a  hypocrite,"  "running  from  church 
to  church  after  the  famousest  preachers,  and  keeping  a 
clatter  with  her  devotions,"  is  remembered  in  America 
as  a  benefactress.  The  aged  Lord  Wharton,  last  sur- 
viving member  of  the  Westminster  assembly  of  divines, 
"a  constant  and  cordial  lover  of  all  good  men,"  never 
grew  weary  in  his  zeal.  I  take  pleasure  in  record- 
ing that  the  tolerant  archbishop  of  Canterbury,  the 
rational  Tillotson,  charged  the  king  "  not  to  take  away 
from  the  people  of  New  England  any  of  the  privileges 
which  Charles  I.  had  granted  them." — "  The  charter 
of  New  England,"  said  the  feebler  Burnet,  "  was  not 
an  act  of  grace,  but  a  contract  between  the  king  and 
the  first  patentees,  who  promised  to  enlarge  the  king's 
dominion  at  their  own  charges,  provided  they  and  their 
posterity  might  enjoy  certain  privileges."  Yet  Somers 
resisted  the  restoration  of  the  charter  of  Massachusetts, 


80  MASSACHUSETTS. 

CHAP,  pleading  its  imperfections.  The  charter  sketched  by 
-  Sir  George  Trebj  was  rejected  by  the  privy  council 
Eb°ernnCt  for  its  liberality  ;  and  that  which  was  finally  conceded 
byi°M5a-  reserved  such  powers  to  the  crown,  that  Cooke,  the 


popular  envoy,  declined  to  accept  it.  Somers  and  King 
1691.  William  were  less  liberal  to  Massachusetts  than  Clar- 
Oct7'  endon  and  Charles  II. 

The  freemen  of  Massachusetts,  under  the  old  char- 
ter, had  elected  their  governor  annually;  he  was 
henceforward  appointed  by  the  king  during  the  royal 
pleasure.  The  governor  had  been  but  first  among  the 
magistrates  ;  he  was  now  the  representative  of  English 
royalty,  and  could  convene,  adjourn,  or  dissolve  the 
general  court.  The  freemen  had,  by  popular  vote, 
annually  elected  their  magistrates,  or  judicial  officers  ; 
the  judges  were  now  appointed,  with  consent  of  coun- 
cil, by  the  royal  governor.  The  decisions  in  the  courts 
of  New  England  had  been  final  ;  appeals  to  the  privy 
council  were  now  admitted.  The  freemen  had  exer- 
cised the  full  power  of  legislation  within  themselves  by 
their  deputies  ;  the  warrior  king  reserved  a  double  veto 
—  an  immediate  negative  to  the  governor  of  the  colony, 
while,  at  any  time  within  three  years,  the  king  might 
cancel  any  act  of  colonial  legislation.  In  one  respect, 
the  new  charter  was  an  advancement.  Every  form  of 
Christianity,  except,  unhappily,  the  Roman  Catholic, 
was  enfranchised  ;  and,  in  civil  affairs,  the  freedom  of 
the  colony,  no  longer  restricted  to  the  members  of  the 
church,  was  extended  so  widely  as  to  be,  in  a  practical 
sense,  nearly  universal.  The  legislature  continued  to 
encourage  by  law  the  religion  professed  by  the  majority 
of  the  inhabitants,  but  it  no  longer  decided  controver- 
sies on  opinions  ;  and  no  synod  was  ever  again  con- 
vened. The  charter  government  of  Massachusetts,  as 


NEW   HAMPSHIRE.  81 

established  by  the  revolutionary  monarch  of  England,  CHAP. 

differed  from  that  of  the  royal  provinces  in  nothing  but 

the  council.  In  the  royal  colonies,  that  body  was  ap- 
pointed by  the  king ;  in  Massachusetts,  it  was,  in  the 
first  instance,  appointed  by  the  king,  and,  subject  to 
a  negative  from  the  governor,  was  ever  after  elected, 
in  joint  ballot,  by  the  members  of  the  council  and  the 
representatives  of  the  people.  As  the  councillors  were 
twenty-eight  in  number,  they  generally,  by  their  own 
vote,  succeeded  in  effecting  their  own  reelection  ;  and, 
instead  of  being,  as  elsewhere,  a  greedy  oligarchy,  were 
famed  for  their  unoffending  respectability.  For  long 
years,  they  ventured  on  nothing  that  could  displease 
royalty  or  the  people. 

The  territory  of  Massachusetts  was  by  the  charter 
vastly  enlarged.  On  the  south,  it  embraced  Plymouth 
colony  and  the  Elizabeth  Islands ;  on  the  east,  it  in- 
cluded Maine  and  all  beyond  it  to  the  Atlantic ;  on  the 
north,  it  was  described  as  swept  by  the  St.  Lawrence 
— the  fatal  gift  of  a  wilderness,  for  the  conquest  and 
defence  of  which  Massachusetts  expended  more  treas- 
ure, and  lost  more  of  her  sons,  than  all  the  English 
continental  colonies  beside. 

From  the  Elizabeth  Islands  to  the  St.  Lawrence,  and 
eastward  to  the  Atlantic,  Massachusetts  now  included 
the  whole  vast  region,  except  New  Hampshire.  That 
colony  became  henceforward  a  royal  province.  Its  in- 
habitants had  assembled  in  convention  to  institute  gov-  1689. 
eminent  for  themselves ;  at  their  second  session,  they  1690 
resolved  to  unite,  and  did  actually  unite,  with  Massa- 
chusetts ;  and  both  colonies  desired  that  the  union 
might  be  permanent.  But  England,  if  it  annexed  to 
Massachusetts  the  burden  of  the  unconquered  desert 
oast  and  north  of  the  Piscataqua,  held  itself  bound  by 
VOL.  in.  11 


OZ  NEW   HAMPSHIRE. 

OHAP.  no  previous  compact  to  concede  to  New  Hampshire  any 

^~  charter  whatever.  The  right  to  the  soil,  which  Sam- 
uel Allen,  of  London,  had  purchased  of  Mason,  was 
recognized  as  valid ;  and  Allen  himself  received  the 
royal  commission  to  govern  a  people  whose  territory, 
including  the  farms  they  had  redeemed  from  the  wil- 
derness, he  claimed  as  his  own.  His  son-in-law  Usher, 
of  Boston,  formerly  an  adherent  of  Andros,  and  a  great 
speculator  in  lands,  was  appointed,  under  him,  lieuten- 
ant-governor. Such  was  the  English  revolution  of 
1688.  It  valued  the  uncertain  claims  of  an  English 
merchant  more  than  the  liberties  of  a  province.,  In- 
deed, that  revolution  loved,  not  liberty,  but  privilege, 
and  respected  popular  liberty  only  where  it  had  the 
sanction  of  a  vested  right. 

1692.  In  1692,  the  new  government  for  New  Hampshire 
isf"  was  organized  by  Usher.  The  civil  history  of  that 
colony,  for  a  quarter  of  a  century,  is  a  series  of  law- 
suits about  land.  Complaints  against  Usher  were  met 
by  counter  complaints,  till  New  Hampshire  was  placed, 
with  Massachusetts,  under  the  government  of  Bella- 

1699.  mont,  and  a  judiciary,  composed  of  men  attached  tc 
the  colony,  was  instituted.  Then,  and  for  years  after- 
wards, followed  scenes  of  confusion  ; — trials  in  the  colo- 
nial courts,  resulting  always  in  verdicts  against  the. 
pretended  proprietary ;  appeals  to  the  English  monarch 
in  council ;  papers  withheld ;  records  of  the  court  un- 
der Cranfield  destroyed  ;  orders  from  the  lords  of  trade 
and  the  crown  disregarded  by  a  succession  of  inflexible 
juries;  a  compromise  proposed,  and  rendered  of  no 
avail  by  the  death  of  one  of  the  parties ;  an  Indian 
deed  manufactured  to  protect  the  cultivators  of  the 
soil ;  till,  at  last,  the  heirs  of  the  proprietary  abandoned 

1715.  their  claim  in  despair.     The  yeomanry  of  New  Hamp- 


MASSACH  l/SETTS.  83 

shire  gained  quiet  possession  of  the  land  which  their  CHAP. 
labor    had    redeemed    and    rendered  valuable.      The  ~~~ 
waste  domain  reverted  to  the  crown.     A  proprietary, 
sustained  by  the  crown,  claimed  the  people  of  New 
Hampshire  as  his  tenants ;  and  they  made  themselves 
freeholders. 

For  Massachusetts,  the  nomination  of  its  first  officers  1691 
under  the  charter  was  committed  to  Increase  Mather 
As  governor  he  proposed  Sir  William  Phipps,  a  native 
of  New  England,  who  honestly  loved  his  country, — of 
a  dull  intellect,  headstrong,  and  with  a  reason  so  feeble 
that,  in  politics,  he  knew  nothing  of  general  principles, 
in  religion,  was  the  victim  to  superstition.  Accus- 
tomed, from  boyhood,  to  the  axe  and  the  oar,  he  had 
gained  distinction  only  by  his  wealth,  the  fruits  of  his 
enterprise  with  the  diving-bell  in  raising  treasures 
from  a  Spanish  wreck.  His  partners  in  this  enterprise 
gained  him  the  honor  of  knighthood  ;  his  present  favor 
was  due  to  the  honest  bigotry  and  ignorance  which  left 
him  open  to  the  influence  of  the  ministers.  Interces- 
sion had  been  made  by  Cotton  Mather  for  the  advance- 
ment of  William  Stoughton,  a  man  of  cold  affections, 
proud,  self-willed,  and  covetous  of  distinction.  He 
had  acted  under  James  II.  as  deputy-president — a  fit  tool 
for  such  a  king,  joining  in  all  "  the  miscarriages  of  the 
late  government."  The  people  had  rejected  him,  in 
their  election  of  judges,  giving  him  not  a  vote.  Yield- 
ing to  the  request  of  his  son,  Increase  Mather  assigned 
to  Stoughton  the  office  of  deputy-governor.  "  The 
twenty-eight  assistants,  who  are  the  governor's  coun- 
cil, every  man  of  them,"  wrote  the  agent,  "  is  a  friend 
to  the  interests  of  the  churches." — "  The  time  for  favor 
is  come,"  exulted  Cotton  Mather ;  "  yea,  the  set  time 
is  come.  Instead  of  my  being  made  a  sacrifice  to 


84  MASSACHUSETTS. 

CHAP,  wicked  rulers,  my  father-in-law,  with  several  related 
*^v^*  to  me,  and  several  brethren  of  mj  own  church,  are 
among  the  council.     The  governor  of  the  province  is 
c  Math-  not  mJ  enemj?  but  one  whom  I  baptized,  and  one  of 
mj  own  flock,  and  one  of  my  dearest  friends."     And, 
uttering  -a  midnight  cry,  he  wrestled  with    God   to 
awaken  the  churches  to  some  remarkable  thing.     A 
religious  excitement  was  resolved  on.     "  I  obtained  of 
the  Lord  that  he  would  use  me,"  says  the  infatuated 
man,  "  to  be  a  herald  of  his  kingdom  now  approach- 

1692.  m£ '  "  an^>  m  t^e  gl°om  °f  winter,  among  a  people 
desponding  at  the  loss  of  their  old  liberties,  and  their 
ill  success  against  Quebec,  the  wildest  imaginations 
might  prevail. 

It  must  be  remarked  that,  in  modern  times,  the  cry 
of  witchcraft  had  been  raised  by  the  priesthood  rarely, 
I  think  never,  except  when  free  inquiry  was  advancing. 
Many  a  commission  was  empowered  to  punish  alike 
heresy  and  witchcraft.  The  bold  inquirer  was  some- 
times burned  as  a  wizard,  and  sometimes  as  an  insur- 
gent against  the  established  faith.  In  France,  where 
there  were  most  heretics,  there  were  most  condemna- 
tions for  witchcraft.  Rebellion,  it  was  said,  is  as  the 
sin  of  witchcraft ;  and  Cotton  Mather,  in  his  Discourse, 

C.M.'S  did  but  repeat  the  old  tale :  "  Rebellion  is  the  Achan, 

™™>  the  trouble  of  us  all." 

In  Salem  village,  now  Danvers,  there  had  been,  be- 
tween  Samuel   Parris,  the  minister,  and  a  part  of  his 
people,  a  strife  so  bitter,  that  it  had  even  attracted  the 
69"   attenti°n  °f  tne  general  court.     The  delusion  of  witch- 

Feh.  craft  would  give  opportunities  of  terrible  vengeance. 
In  the  family  of  Samuel  Parris,  his  daughter,  a  child 
of  nine  years,  and  his  niece,  a  girl  of  less  than  twelve, 
began  to  have  strange  caprices.  "  He  that  will  read 


WITCHCRAFT  AT  SALEM.  85 

Cotton  Mather's  Book  of  Memorable  Providences,  may  CHAP. 

XIX. 

read  part  of  what  these  children  suffered : "  and  Tituba,  - — ^ 
an  Indian  female  servant,  who  had  practised  some  wild  Hale>24- 
incantations,    being   betrayed    by   her   husband,  was  1692. 
scourged  by  Parris,  her  master,  into  confessing  herself  ,*-. 
a  witch.     The  ministers  of  the  neighborhood  held,  at    11. 
the  afflicted  house,  a  day  of  fasting  and  prayer ;  and 
the  little  children  became  the  most  conspicuous  person- 
ages in  Salem.     Of  a  sudden,  the  opportunity  of  fame, 
of  which  the  love  is  not  the  exclusive  infirmity  of  noble 
minds,  was  placed  within  the  reach  of  persons  of  the 
coarsest  mould  ;  and  the  ambition  of  notoriety  recruited 
the  little  company  of  the  possessed.     There  existed  no 
motive  to  hang  Tituba  :  she  was  saved  as  a  living  wit- 
ness to  the  reality  of  witchcraft ;  and  Sarah  Good,  a 
poor  woman,  of  a  melancholic  temperament,  was  the 
first  person  selected  for  accusation.     Cotton  Mather, 

C.  M.'§ 

who  had  placed  witches  "among  the  poor,  and  vile,  and 
ragged  beggars  upon  earth,"  and  haa  staked  his  own 
reputation  for  veracity  on  the  reality  of  witchcraft, 
prayed  "  for  a  good  issue."  As  the  affair  proceeded, 
and  the  accounts  of  the  witnesses  appeared  as  if  taken 
from  his  own  writings,  his  boundless  vanity  gloried  in 
"  the  assault  of  the  evil  angels  upon  the  country,  as 
a  particular  defiance  unto  himself."  Yet  the  delu- 
sion, but  for  Parris,  would  have  languished.  Of 
his  own  niece,  the  girl  of  eleven  years  of  age,  he 
demanded  the  names  of  the  devil's  instruments  who 
bewitched  the  band  of  "  the  afflicted ; "  and  then  be- 
came at  once  informer  and  witness.  In  those  days, 
there  was  no  prosecuting  officer,  and  Parris  was  at 
hand  to  question  his  Indian  servants  and  others,  him- 
self prompting  their  answers,  and  acting  as  recorder  to 
the  magistrates.  The  recollection  of  the  old  contro- 


86  MASSACHUSETTS 

CHAP,  versy  in  the  parish  could  not  be  forgotten  ;  and  Parris, 

~  moved  by  personal  malice,  as  well  as  by  blind  zeal, 

1692.  "stifled  the  accusations  of  some," — such  is  the  testi- 
mony of  the  people  of  his  own  village, — and,  at  the 
same  time  "  vigilantly  promoting  the  accusation  of  oth- 
ers," was  "  the  beginner  and  procurer  of  the  sore  afflic- 
M*Jch  tions  to  Salem  village  and  the  country."  Martha  Cory, 
who,  on  her  examination  in  the  meeting-house  before 
a  throng,  with  a  firm  spirit,  alone,  against  them  all, 
denied  the  presence  of  witchcraft,  was  committed  to 
March  prison.  Rebecca  Nurse,  likewise,  a  woman  of  purest 
life,  an  object  of  the  special  hatred  of  Parris,  resisted 
the  company  of  accusers,  and  was  committed.  And 
Parris,  filling  his  prayers  with  the  theme,  made  the 
£"  pulpit  ring  with  it.  "  Have  not  I  chosen  you  twelve," 
— such  was  his* text, — "and  one  of  you  is  a  devrl  ?  "  At 
this,  Sarah  Cloyce,  sister  to  Rebecca  Nurse,  rose  up 
and  left  the  meeting-house ;  and  she,  too,  was  cried 
out  upon,  and  slnt  to  prison. 

The  subject  grew  interesting ;  and,  to  examine  Sa- 
rah Cloyce  and  Elizabeth  Procter,  the  deputy-governor, 
and  five  other  magistrates,  went  to  Salem.  It  was  a 
great  day;  several  ministers  were  present.  Parris 
officiated ;  and,  by  his  own  record,  it  is  plain  that  he 
himself  elicited  every  accusation.  His  first  witness, 
John,  the  Indian  servant,  husband  to  Tituba,  was  re- 
buked by  Sarah  Cloyce,  as  a  grievous  liar.  Abigail 
Williams,  the  niece  to  Parris,  was  also  at  hand  with  her 
tales  :  the  prisoner  had  been  at  the  witches'  sacrament. 
Struck  with  horror,  Sarah  Cloyce  asked  for  water,  and 
sank  down  "  in  a  dying  fainting  fit." — "  Her  spirit," 
shouted  the  band  of  the  afflicted,  "  is  gone  to  prison  to 
her  sister  Nurse."  Against  Elizabeth  Procter,  the  niece 
of  Parris  told  stories  yet  more  foolish  than  false  .  the 


WITCHCRAFT  AT   SALEM.  87 

prisoner   had   invited   her  to   sign    the  devil's   book.  CHAP. 
"  Dear  child,"  exclaimed  the  accused  in  her  agony,  "  it  ^  —  - 
is  not  so.     There  is  another  judgment,  dear  child;"  1692 
and  her  accusers,  turning  towards  her  husband,  de- 
clared that  he,  too,  was  a  wizard.     All  three  were 
committed.     Examinations   and   commitments   multi-     is. 


plied.  Giles  Cory,  a  stubborn  old  man  of  more  than  four- 
score  years,  could  not  escape  the  malice  of  his  minister 
and  his  angry  neighbors,  with  whom  he  had  quarrelled. 
Edward  Bishop,  a  farmer,  cured  the  Indian  servant  of 
a  fit  by  flogging  him  ;  he  declared,  moreover,  his  belief 
that  he  could,  in  like  manner,  cure  the  whole  company  . 
of  the  afflicted  ;  and,  for  his  skepticism,  found  himself  22. 
and  his  wife  in  prison.  Mary  Easty,  of  Topsfield,  an- 
other sister  to  Rebecca  Nurse,  —  a  woman  of  singular 
gentleness  and  force  of  character,  deeply  religious,  yet 
uninfected  by  superstition,  —  was  torn  from  her  chil- 
dre.n,  and  sent  to  jail.  Parris  had  had  a  rival  in  George  ^^ 
Burroughs,  who,  having  formerly  preached  in  Salem 
village,  had  had  friends  there  desirous  of  his  settle- 
ment. He,  too,  a  skeptic  in  witchcraft,  was  accused  Mays, 
and  committed.  Thus  far,  there  had  been  no  success 
in  obtaining  confessions,  though  earnestly  solicited. 
It  had  been  hinted,  also,  that  confessing  was  the  ave- 
nue to  safety.  At  last,  Deliverance  Hobbs  owned 
every  thing  that  was  asked  of  her,  and  was  left  un- 
harmed. The  gallows  was  to  be  set  up,  not  for  those 
who  professed  themselves  witches,  but  for  those  who 
rebuked  the  delusion. 

Simon    Bradstreet,    the    governor   of    the    people's 
choice,  deemed   the   evidence  insufficient   ground   of 

1692 
guilt      On  Saturday,  the  14th  of  May,  the  new  char-    May 

ter  and  the  royal  governor  arrived  in  Boston.     On  the     14a 
next   Monday,    the    charter   was    published,  and   the     16. 


88  MASSACHUSETTS. 

CHAP,  parishioner  of  Cotton  Mather,  with  the  royal  council, 
^~  was  installed  in  office.     The  triumph  of  Cotton  Mather 
1692.  was  perfect.     Immediately  a  court  of  oyer  and  termi- 
ner  was  instituted  by  ordinance,  and  Stoughton  ap- 
pointed by  the  governor  and  council  its  chief  judge : 
by  the  2d  of  June,  the  court  was  in  session  at  Salem, 
making  its  first  experiment  on  Bridget  Bishop,  a  poor 
and  friendless  old  woman.     The  fact  of  the  witchcraft 

Cotton 

Math***  was  assumed  as  "  notorious  : "  to  fix  it  on  the  prisoner, 
ders*  Samuel  Parris,  who  had  examined  her  before  her  com- 
mitment, was  the  principal  witness  to  her  power  of 
inflicting  torture  ;  he  had  seen  it  exercised.  Deliver- 
ance Hobbs  had  been  whipped  with  iron  rods  by  her 

naie^.  spectre ;  neighbors,  who  had  quarrelled  with  her,  were 
willing  to  lay  their  little  ills  to  her  charge ;  the  poor 
creature  had  a  preternatural  excrescence  in  her  flesh ; 
"  she  gave  a  look  towards  the  great  and  spacious 
meeting-house  of  Salem," — it  is  Cotton  Mather  \yho 
records  this, — "  and  immediately  a  daemon,  invisibly  en- 
tering the  house,  tore  down  a  part  of  it."  She  was  a 
witch  by  the  rules  and  precedents  of  Keeble  and  Sir 
Matthew  Hale,  of  Perkins  and  Bernard,  of  Baxter  and 
Cotton  Mather;  and,  on  the  10th  of  June,  protesting 
her  innocence,  she  was  hanged.  Of  the  magistrates 
at  that  time,  not  one  held  office  by  the  suffrage  of  the 
people :  the  tribunal,  essentially  despotic  in  its  origin, 
as  in  its  character,  had  no  sanction  but  an  extraordi- 
nary and  an  illegal  commission ;  and  Stoughton,  the 
chief  judge,  a  partisan  of  Andros,  had  been  rejected 
by  the  people  of  Massachusetts.  The  responsibility 
ot  the  tragedy,  far  from  attaching  to  the  people  of 
the  colony,  rests  with  the  very  few,  hardly  five  or 
six,  in  whose  hands  the  transition  state  of  the  gov- 
ernment left,  for  a  season,  unlimited  influence.  Into 


WITCHCRAFT  AT    SALEM.  89 

the  interior  of  the  colony  the  delusion  did  not  spread  CHAP 

,,  XIX. 

at  all.  ~ 

The  house  of  representatives,  which  assembled  in  1692. 


June,  was  busy  with  its  griefs  at  the  abridgment  of 


the  old  colonial  liberties.     Increase  Mather,  the  agent, 
was  heard  in  his  own  defence  ;  and,  at  last,  Bond,  the   June 
speaker,  in  the  name  of  the  house,  tardily  and  lan- 
guidly thanked  him  for  his   faithful   and   unwearied 
exertions.     No  recompense  was  voted.     "  I  seek  not 
yours,  but  you,"  said  Increase  Mather  ;    "  I  am  willing 
to  wait  for  recompense  in  another  world  ;  "  and  the  ^jj" 
general  court,  after  prolonging  the  validity  of  the  old    "S 
laws,  adjourned  to  October.  July  2. 

But  Phipps  and  his  council  had  not  looked  to  the 
general  court  for  directions  ;  they  turned  to  the  minis- 
ters of  Boston  and  Charlestown  ;  and  from  them,  by 
the  hand  of  Cotton  Mather,  they  receive  gratitude  for 
their  sedulous  endeavors  to  defeat  the  abominable 
witchcrafts  ;  prayer  that  the  discovery  may  be  perfected  ; 
a  caution  against  haste  and  spectral  evidence  ;  a  hint  to 
affront  the  devil,  and  give  him  the  lie,  by  condemning 
none  on  his  testimony  alone  ;  while  the  direful  advice 
is  added  —  "  We  recommend  the  speedy  and  vigorous 
prosecution  of  such  as  have  rendered  themselves  ob- 
noxious." The  obedient  court,  at  its  next  session,  June 

OA 

condemned  five  women,  all  of  blameless  lives,  all  de- 
claring their  innocence.  Four  were  convicted  easily 
enough  ;  Rebecca  Nurse  was,  at  first,  acquitted. 
"  The  honored  court  was  pleased  to  object  against 
the  verdict  ;  "  and,  as  she  had  said  rf  the  confessing 
witnesses,  "  they  used  to  come  among  us,"  meaning 
that  they  had  been  prisoners  together,  Stoughton  in- 
terpreted the  words  as  of  a  witch  festival.  The  jury 
withdrew,  and  could  as  yet  not  agree  ;  but,  as  the 
VOL.  in.  12 


90  MASSACHUSETTS, 

CHAP,  prisoner,  who  was  hard  of  hearing,  and  full  of  grief, 
^~  made  no  explanation,  they  no  longer  refused  to  find  her 
Su^ty'  Hardly  was  the  verdict  rendered,  before  the 
foreman  made  a  statement  of  the  ground  of  her  con- 
demnation, and  she  sent  her  declaration  to  the  court 
in  reply.  The  governor,  who  himself  was  not  unmer- 
ciful, saw  cause  to  grant  a  reprieve ;  but  Parris  had 
preached  against  Rebecca  Nurse,  and  prayed  against 
her ;  had  induced  "  the  afflicted "  to  witness  against 
her ;  had  caused  her  sisters  to  be  imprisoned  for  their 
honorable  sympathy.  She  must  perish,  or  the  delusion 
gjj-  was  unveiled ;  and  the  governor  recalled  the  reprieve. 
*£&  On  the  next  communion  day,  she  was  taken  in  chains  to 
the  meeting-house,  to  be  formally  excommunicated  by 
Noyes,  her  minister;  and  was  hanged  with  the  rest. 
"  You  are  a  witch ;  you  know  you  are,"  said  Noyes  to 
Sarah  Good,  urging  a  confession.  "  You  are  a  liar," 
replied  the  poor  woman ;  "  and,  if  you  take  my  life, 
God  will  give  you  blood  to  drink." 

Confessions  rose  in  importance.  "  Some,  not  afflict- 
ed  before  confession,  were  so  presently  after  it."  The 
jails  were  filled  ;  for  fresh  accusations  were  needed  to 
confirm  the  confessions.  "  Some,  by  these  their  accusa- 
tions of  others," — 1  quote  the  cautious  apologist  Hale, 
— "  hoped  to  gain  time,  and  get  favor  from  the  rulers." 
"  Some  of  the  inferior  sort  of  people  did  ill  offices,  by 
promising  favor  thereby,  more  than  they  had  ground  to 
engage.  Some,  under  these  temptations,  regarded  not 
as  they  should  what  became  of  others,  so  that  they 
could  thereby  serve  their  own  turns.  Some  have  since 
acknowledged  so  much."  If  the  confessions  were  con- 
tradictory; if  witnesses  uttered  apparent  falsehoods, 
toHuT  "tne  devil,"  the  judges  would  say,  "takes  away  their 
^e£  memory,  and  imposes  on  their  brain."  And  who  now 


WITCHCRAFT   AT   SALEM.  91 

would  dare  to  be  skeptical  ?  who  would  disbelieve  CHAP 

confessors  ?     Besides,  there  were  other  evidences.     A  - 

callous  spot  was  the  mark  of  the  devil :  did  age  or  1692 
amazement  refuse  to  shed  tears ;  were  threats  after  a 
quarrel  followed  by  the  death  of  cattle  or  other  harm ; 
did  an  error  occur  in  repeating  the  Lord's  prayer ;  were 
deeds  of  great  physical  strength  performed, — these 
all  were  signs  of  witchcraft.  In  some  instances,  the 
phenomena  of  somnambulism  would  appear  to  have 
been  exhibited  ;  and  "  the  afflicted,  out  of  their  fits, 
knew  nothing  of  what  they  did  or  said  in  them."  naie,56. 

Again,  on  a  new  session,  six  are  arraigned,  and  all  Aug. 
are  convicted.  John  Willard  had,  as  an  officer,  been 
employed  to  arrest  the  suspected  witches.  Perceiving 
the  hypocrisy,  he  declined  the  service.  The  afflicted 
immediately  denounced  him,  and  he  was  seized,  con- 
victed, and  hanged. 

At  the  trial  of  George  Burroughs,  the  bewitched 

o  o        ' 

persons  pretended  to  be  dumb.  "  Who  hinders  these 
witnesses,"  said  Stoughton,  "  from  giving  their  testi- 
monies ?" — "I  suppose  the  devil,"  answered  Bur- 
roughs. "  How  comes  the  devil,"  retorted  the  chief 
judge,  "  so  loath  to  have  any  testimony  borne  against 
you  ?  "  and  the  question  was  effective.  Besides,  he 
had  given  proofs  of  great,  if  not  preternatural  mus- 
cular strength.  Cotton  Mather  calls  the  evidence 
"  enough :  "  the  jury  gave  a  verdict  of  guilty. 

John  Procter,  who  foresaw  his  doom,  and  knew  from  July 
whom  the  danger  came,  sent  an  earnest  petition,  not 
to  the  governor  and  council,  but  to  Cotton  Mather  and 
the  ministers.  Among  the  witnesses  against  him  were 
some  who  had  made  no  confessions  till  after  torture. 
"  They  have  already  undone  us  in  our  estates,  and 
that  will  not  serve  their  turns  without  our  innocent 


92  MASSACHUSETTS. 

CHAP,  blood ;  "  and  he  begs  for  a  trial  in  Boston,  or,  at  least, 

— ~  for  a  change  of  magistrates.     His  entreaties  were  vain, 

lcwe?'  as  a^so  ^s  PraJers>  after  condemnation,  for  a  respite. 

B5.226.      Among  the  witnesses  against  Martha  Carrier,  the 

mother  saw  her  own  children.     Her  two  sons  refused 

to  perjure  themselves  till  they  had  been  tied  neck  and 

heels  so  long  that  the  blood  was  ready  to  gush  from 

them.     The  confession  of  her  daughter,  a  child  of  seven 

years  old,  is  still  preserved. 

The  aged  Jacobs  was  condemned,  in  part,  by  the 
evidence  of  Margaret  Jacobs,  his  granddaughter. 
"  Through  the  magistrates'  threatemngs  and  my  own 
vile  heart," — thus  she  wrote  to  her  father, — "  I  have 
confessed  things  contrary  to  my  conscience  and  knowl- 
edge. But,  oh !  the  terrors  of  a  wounded  conscience 
who  can  bear  ?  "  And  she  confessed  the  whole  truth 
before  the  magistrates.  The  magistrates  refused  their 
belief,  and,  confining  her  for  trial,  proceeded  to  hang 
her  grandfather. 

Aug.  These  five  were  condemned  on  the  third,  and  hanged 
on  the  nineteenth  of  August ;  pregnancy  reprieved 
Elizabeth  Procter.  To  hang  a  minister  as  a  witch 
was  a  novelty  ;  but  Burroughs  denied  absolutely  that 
there  was,  or  could  be,  such  a  thing  as  witchcraft,  in 
the  current  sense.  This  opinion  wounded  the  self-love 
of  the  judges,  for  it  made  them  the  accusers  and  judi- 
cial murderers  of  the  innocent.  On  the  ladder,  Bur- 
roughs cleared  his  innocence  by  an  earnest  speech, 
repeating  the  Lord's  prayer  composedly  and  exactly, 
and  with  a  fervency  that  astonished.  Tears  flowed  to 
the  eyes  of  many ;  it  seemed  as  if  the  spectators  would 
rise  up  to  hinder  the  execution.  Cotton  Mather,  on 
horseback  among  the  crowd,  addressed  the  people, 
cavilling  at  the  ordination  of  Burroughs,  as  though  he 


WITCHCRAFT  AT   SALEM.  93 

had  been  no  true  minister ;  insisting  on  his  guilt,  and  CHAP 
hinting  that  the  devil  could  sometimes  assume  the  ~~^- 
appearance  of  an  angel  of  light :  and  the  hanging  1692 
proceeded. . 

Meantime,  the  confessions  of  the  witches  began  to 
be  directed  against  the  Anabaptists.  Mary  Osgood 
was  dipped  by  the  devil.  The  court  still  had  work  to 
do.  On  the  ninth,  six  women  were  condemned  ;  and 
more  convictions  followed.  Giles  Cory,  the  octogena- 
rian, seeing  that  all  were  convicted,  refused  to  plead, 
and  was  condemned  to  be  pressed  to  death.  The  horrid 
sentence,  a  barbarous  usage  of  English  law,  never  again 
followed  in  the  colonies,  was  executed  forthwith. 

On  the  twenty-second  of  September,  eight  persons 
were  led  to  the  gallows.  Of  these,  Samuel  Wardwell 
had  confessed,  and  was  safe ;  but,  from  shame  and 
penitence,  he  retracted  his  confession,  and,  speaking 
the  truth  boldly,  he  was  hanged,  not  for  witchcraft, 
but  for  denying  witchcraft.  Martha  Cory  was,  before 
execution,  visited  in  prison  by  Parris,  the  two  deacons, 
and  another  member  of  his  church.  The  church  record 
tells  that,  self-sustained,  she  "  imperiously  "  rebuked 
her  destroyers,  and  "  they  pronounced  the  dreadful 
sentence  of  excommunication  against  her."  In  the 
calmness  with  which  Mary  Easty  exposed  the  falsehood 
of  those  who  had  selected  from  her  family  so  many 
victims,  she  joined  the  noblest  fortitude  with  sweetness 
of  temper,  dignity,  and  resignation.  But  the  chief 
judge  was  positive  that  all  had  been  done  rightly,  and 
"  was  very  impatient  in  hearing  any  thing  that  looked  74.° 
another  way." — "  There  hang  eight  firebrands  of  hell," 
said  Noyes,  the  minister  of  Salem,  pointing  to  the 
bodies  swinging  on  the  gallows. 

Already  twenty  persons  had  been  put  to  death  for 


94  MASSACHUSETTS. 

CHAP,  witchcraft ;  fifty-five  had  been  tortured  or  terrified  into 
~^~  penitent  confessions.  With  accusations,  confessions 
1692  increased;  with  confessions,  new  accusations.  Even 
"  the  generation  of  the  children  of  God  "  \yere  in  dan- 
ger of  "  falling  under  that  condemnation."  The  jails 
were  full.  It  was  also  observed,  that  no  one  of  the 
condemned  confessing  witchcraft  had  been  hanged. 
No  one  that  confessed,  and  retracted  a  confession,  had 
escaped  either  hanging  or  imprisonment  for  trial.  No 
one  of  the  condemned,  who  asserted  innocence,  even 
if  one  of  the  witnesses  confessed  perjury,  or  the  fore- 
man of  the  jury  acknowledged  the  error  of  the  ver- 
dict, escaped  the  gallows.  Favoritism  was  shown  in 
listening  to  accusations,  which  were  turned  aside  from 
friends  or  partisans.  If  a  man  began  a  career  as  a 
witch-hunter,  and,  becoming  convinced  of  the  impos- 
ture, declined  the  service,  he  was  accused  and 
hanged.  Persons  accused,  who  had  escaped  from  the 
jurisdiction  in  Massachusetts,  were  not  demanded,  as 
would  have  been  done  in  case  of  acknowledged  crime  ; 
so  that  the  magistrates  acted  as  if  witch-law  did  not 
extend  beyond  their  jurisdiction.  Witnesses  convicted 
of  perjury  were  cautioned,  and  permitted  still  to  swear 
away  the  lives  of  others.  It  was  certain,  people  had 
been  tempted  to  become  accusers  by  promise  of  favor. 
Yet  the  zeal  of  Stoughton  was  unabated,  and  the  arbi- 
trary court  adjourned  to  the  first  Tuesday  in  November. 
"  Between  this  and  then,"  wrote  Brattle,  "  will  be  the 
great  assembly,  and  this  matter  will  be  a  peculiar  sub- 
ject of  agitation.  Our  hopes,"  he  adds,  "  are  here." 
The  representatives  of  the  people  must  stay  the  evil, 
or  "  New  England  is  undone  and  undone." 

Far  different  was  the  reasoning  of  Cotton  Mather. 
He  was  met  "  continually  with  all  sorts  of  objections 


WITCHCRAFT  AT   SALEM.  96 

and  objectors  against  the  work  doing  at  Salem."  The  CHAP 
obstinate  Sadducees,  "  the  witch  advocates,"  who  ~~*^ 
esteemed  the  executions  to  be  judicial  murders,  gained  1692 
such  influence  as  to  embarrass  the  governor. .  But 
Cotton  Mather,  still  eager  "  to  lift  up  a  standard 
against  the  infernal  enemy,"  undertook  the  defence  of 
his  friends ;  and  he  sent  to  Salem  for  an  account  strong 
enough  "  to  knock  down  "  "  one  that  believed  nothing 
reasonable,"  promising  "  to  box  it  about  among  his 
neighbors  till  it  come  he  knows  not  where  at  la.st." 
Before  the  opening  of  the  adjourned  session  of  the 
general  court,  the  indefatigable  man  had  prepared  his 
narrative  of  "  the  Wonders  of  the  Invisible  World,"  in 
the  design  of  promoting  "  a  pious  thankfulness  to  God 
for  justice  being  so  far  executed  among  us."  For  this 
book  he  received  the  approbation  of  the  president  of 
Harvard  College,  the  praises  of  the  governor,  and  the 
gratitude  of  Stoughton. 

On  the  second  Wednesday  in  October,  1692,  about  1692. 
a  fortnight  after  the  last  hanging  of  eight  at  Salem, 
the  representatives  of  the  people  assembled ;  and  the 
people  of  Andover,  their  minister  joining  with  them, 
appeared  with  their  remonstrance  against  the  doings 
of  the  witch  tribunals.  "  We  know  not,"  say  they, 
"  who  can  think  himself  safe,  if  the  accusations  of  chil- 
dren, and  others  under  a  diabolical  influence,  shall  be 
received  against  persons  of  good  fame."  Of  the  dis- 
cussions that  ensued  no  record  is  preserved  ;  we  know 
only  the  issue.  The  general  court  did  not  place  itself 
in  direct  opposition  to  the  advocates  of  the  trials :  as 
to  legislation,  it  adopted  what  King  William  rejected, 
— the  English  law,  word  for  word  as  it  stood  in  the 
English  statute-book ;  but  they  abrogated  the  special 
court,  establishing  a  tribunal  by  public  law.  Phipps 


96  MASSACHUSE1TS. 

CHAP,  had,  instantly  on  his  arrival,  employed  his  illegal  court 
-  —  ^  in  hanging  ;  the  representatives  of  the  people  delayed 


1692.  the  fjrst  assembling  of  the  legal  colonial  court  till  Janu- 
ary of  the  following  year.  Thus  an  interval  of  more 
than  three  months  from  the  last  executions  gave  the 
public  mind  security  and  freedom  ;  and,  though  Phipps 
still  conferred  the  place  of  chief  judge  on  Stoughton,  yet 
jurors,  representing  the  public  mind,  acted  independ- 

1Janf*  entlj'  When  the  court  met  at  Salem,  six  women  of 
Andover,  at  once  renouncing  their  confessions,  treated 
the  witchcraft  but  as  something  so  called,  the  bewil- 

*£ni64  dered  DUt  as  "  seemingly  afflicted."  A  memorial  of 
like  tenor  came  from  the  inhabitants  of  Andover. 

Of  the  presentments  the  grand  jury  dismissed  more 
than  half,  and,  if  it  found  bills  against  twenty-six,  the 
trials  did  but  show  the  feebleness  of  the  testimony  on 
which  others  had  been  condemned.  The  same  testi- 
mony was  produced,  and  there,  at  Salem,  with  Stough- 
ton on  the  bench,  verdicts  of  acquittal  followed  :  "  Error 
expired  amidst  its  worshippers."  Three  had,  for  spe- 
cial reasons,  been  corvicted  :  one  was  a  wife,  whose 
testimony  had  sent  her  husband  to  the  gallows,  and 
whose  confession  was  now  used  against  herself.  All 
were  at  once  reprieved,  and  soon  set  free. 
Feb.  Still  reluctant  to  yield,  the  party  of  superstition  were 
resolved  on  one  conviction.  The  victim  selected  was 
Sarah  Daston,  a  woman  of  eighty  years  old,  who  for 
twenty  years  had  enjoyed  the  undisputed  reputation 
of  a  witch  :  if  ever  there  were  a  witch  in  the  world, 
she,  it  was  said,  was  one.  In  the  presence  of  a  throng, 
the  trial  went  forward  at  Charlestown  :  there  was  more 
evidence  against  her  than  against  any  at  Salem  ;  but 
the  common  mind  was  disinthralled,  and  asserted  itself, 
through  the  jury,  by  a  verdict  of  acquittal. 


WITCHCRAFT  EXPLODED.  97 

To  cover  his  confusion,  Cotton  Mather  got  up  a  case  CHAP. 

of  witchcraft  in  his  own  parish.     Miracles,  he  avers,  *- 

were  wrought  in  Boston.  Believe  his  statements,  and 
you  must  believe  that  his  prayers  healed  diseases.  But 
he  was  not  bloodthirsty  ;  he  wished  his  vanity  protect- 
ed, not  his  parishioners  hanged;  and  his  bewitched 
neophyte,  profiting  by  his  cautions,  was  afflicted  by 
veiled  spectres.  The  imposture  was  promptly  exposed 
to  ridicule  by  "a  malignant,  calumnious,  and  reproach- 
ful man,"  "  a  coal  from  hell,"  the  unlettered  but  ra- 
tional and  intelligent  Robert  Calef.  Was  Cotton 
Mather  honestly  credulous  ?  Ever  ready  to  dupe  him- 
self, he  limited  his  credulity  only  by  the  probable 
credulity  of  others.  He  changes,  or  omits  to  repeat, 
his  statements,  without  acknowledging  error,  and 
with  a  clear  intention  of  conveying  false  impressions. 
He  is  an  example  how  far  selfishness,  under  the  form 
of  vanity  and  ambition,  can  blind  the  higher  faculties, 
stupefy  the  judgment,  and  dupe  consciousness  itself. 
His  self-righteousness  was  complete,  till  he  was  re- 
sisted. As  the  recall  of  Phipps — a  consequence  of 
impetuous  imbecility — left  the  government  for  some 
years  in  the  hands  of  Stoughton,  the  press  was  re 
strained  :  when,  at  last,  the  narrative  of  Calef  appeared, 
Cotton  Mather  endeavored  to  shield  himself  by  calling 
his  adversaries  the  adversaries  of  religion ;  and,  though 
hardly  seven  or  eight  of  the  ministers,  and  no  magis- 
trate of  popular  appointment,  had  a  share  in  the  guilt, 
he  endeavored,  but  ineffectually,  to  denounce  the  book 
as  "  a  libel  upon  the  whole  government  and  ministry 
of  the  land."  Denying  the  jurisdiction  of  popular  opin- 
ion, he  claims  the  subject  as  "  too  dark  and  deep  for 
ordinary  comprehension,"  and  appeals  for  a  decision  to 
the  day  of  judgment.  But  the  sentence  was  not  dn- 
VOL.  in.  13 


98  MASSACHUSETTS. 

CHAP  layed.     The  inexorable  indignation  of  the  people  of 

'"  Salem  village  drove  Parris  from  the  place ;  Nojes  re- 

game(j  favor  only  by  a  full  confession,  asking  forgive- 
ness always,  and  consecrating  the  remainder  of  his  life 
to  deeds  of  mercy.  Sewall,  one  of  the  judges,  by  the 
frankness  and  sincerity  of  his  undisguised  confession, 
recovered  public  esteem.  Stoughton  and  Cotton 
Mather  never  repented.  The  former  lived  proud, 
unsatisfied,  and  unbeloved ;  the  latter  attempted  to 
persuade  others  and  himself  that  he  had  not  been 
specially  active  in  the  tragedy.  But  the  public  mind 
would  not  be  deceived.  His  diary  proves  that  he  did 
not  wholly  escape  the  rising  impeachment  from  the 
monitor  within ;  and  Cotton  Mather,  who  had  sought 
the  foundation  of  faith  in  tales  of  wonders,  himself 
"  had  temptations  to  atheism,  and  to  the  abandonment 
of  all  religion  as  a  mere  delusion." 

The  common  mind  of  Massachusetts  was  more  wise. 
It  never  wavered  in  its  faith ;  more  ready  to  receive 
every  tale  from  the  invisible  world,  than  to  gaze  on  the 
universe  without  acknowledging  an  Infinite  Intelli- 
gence. But,  employing  a  gentle  skepticism,  eliminating 
error,  rejecting  superstition  as  tending  to  cowardice  and 
submission,  cherishing  religion  as  the  source  of  courage 
and  the  fountain  of  freedom,  the  common  mind  in  New 
England  refused  henceforward  to  separate  belief  and 
reason.  To  the  west  of  Massachusetts,  and  to  Con- 
necticut, to  which  the  influence  of  Cotton  Mather  and 
its  consequences  did  not  extend,  we  must  look  for  the 
unmixed  development  of  the  essential  character  of  New 
England  ;  yet  there,  also,  faith  and  "  common  sense  " 
were  reconciled.  In  the  vicinity  of  Boston,  the  skep- 
ticism of  free  inquiry  conducted  some  minds  to  healthy 
judgments ;  others  asserted  God  to  be  the  true  being, 


MASSACHUSETTS.  99 

the  devil  to  be  but  a  nonentity,  and  disobedience  to  CJIAP. 
God  to  be  the   only  possible  compact  with  Satan  ;  ^^ 
others,  still  clinging  to  the  letter  of  the   Bible,  yet  * 
showed  the  insufficiency  of  all  evidence  for  the  con-    Haie. 
viction  of  a  witch ;  others  denied  witchcraft,  as  beyond 
comprehension,  involving  a  contradiction,  and  not  sus- 
tained by  the  evidence  of  experience.     The  invisible 
world  began  to  be  less  considered  ;  men  trusted  more  to 
observation  and  analysis  ;  and  this  philosophy,  derived 
from  the  senses,  was  analogous  to  their  civil  condition. 
The  people  in  the  charter  governments  could  hope  from 
England  for  no  concession  of  larger  liberties.     Instead, 
therefore,  of  looking  for  the  reign  of  absolute  right, 
they  were  led  to  reverence  the  forms  of  their  privileges 
as  exempt  from  change.     We  hear  no  more  of  the 
theocracy  wrhere  God  was  alone  supreme  lawgiver  and 
king ;  no  more  of  the  expected  triumph  of  freedom  and 
justice  anticipated  "  in  the  second  coming  of  Christ : " 
liberty,  in  Massachusetts,  was  defended  by  asserting 
the  sanctity  of  compact. 

But  the  political  morality  of  England  did  not  recog- 
nize the  sanctity  of  the  compacts  with  colonies.  "  The 
regulation  of  charters  was  looked  on  as  part  of  the  pub- 
lic economy,"  and  Massachusetts  was  included  in  the 
bill  for  their  abrogation. 

The  colony,  moreover,  had  the  grief  of  receiving  as 
its  governor,  under  a  commission  that  included  New 
Hampshire,  its  own  apostate  son,  Joseph  Dudley,  the 
great  supporter  of  Andros,  "  the  wolf,"  whom  the  A 
patriots  i.f  Boston  had  "  seized  by  the  ears,"  whom  the 
people  had  insisted  on  having  "in  the  jail,"  and  who, 
for  twenty  weeks,  had  been  kept  in  prison,  or,  as  he 
himself  termed  it,  had  been  "  buried  alive."  He  ob- 
tained the  place  by  the  request  of  Cotton  Mather,  who 


100  MASSACHUSETTS. 

CHAP,  at  that  time  continued,  though  erroneously,  to  be  re- 
*— -^  garded  in  England  as  representing  the  general  wish  ol 

the  ministers. 

1702.  On  meeting  his  first  assembly,  Dudley  gave  "  in- 
stances  of  his  remembering  the  old  quarrel,  and  the 
people,  on  their  parts,  resolved  never  to  forget  it." 
"  All  his  ingenuity  could  not  stem  the  current  of  their 
prejudice  against  him."  A  stated  salary  was  demanded 
for  the  governor.  "  As  to  settling  a  salary  for  the  gov- 
ernor," replied  the  house,  "  it  is  altogether  new  to  us ; 
nor  can  we  think  it  agreeable  to  our  present  constitu- 
tion ;  but  we  shall  be  ready  to  do  what  may  be  proper 
for  his  support."  Here  began  the  controversy  which 
nothing  but  independence  could  solve.  In  vain  did 
Dudley  endeavor  to  win  from  the  legislature  conces- 
sions to  the  royal  prerogative ;  and  he,  and,  for  a 
season,  his  son  also,  became  the  active  opponents  of 
the  chartered  liberties  of  New  England,  endeavoring  to 
effect  their  overthrow  and  the  establishment  of  a  gen- 
eral government  as  in  the  days  of  Andros.  "  This 
country  would  never  be  worth  living  in,  for  lawyers 
and  gentlemen,  till  the  charter  is  taken  away." 

The  character  of  Dudley  was  that  of  profound  self- 
ishness. He  possessed  prudence  and  the  inferior 
virtues,  and  was  as  good  a  governor  as  one  could  be 
who  loved  neither  freedom  nor  his  native  land.  His 
grave  is  no  more  honored ;  his  memory  has  perished 
from  among  those  whose  interests  he  flattered,  and  is 
preserved  only  in  the  country  of  his  birth.  He  who 
loved  himself  more  than  freedom  or  his  country,  is  left 
without  one  to  palliate  his  selfishness. 

The  contest  with  France  having  engrossed  the  at- 
tention of  England  and  of  New  England,  Massachu 
setts,  at  this  time,  suffered  no  further  diminution  of  hel 


PARLIAMENT  AND  THE  COLONIES.  101 

liberties,  except  through  the  general  action  of  parlia-  CHAP. 
merit,  which  had  made  itself  supreme  by  electing  mon-  +^*^ 
archs  and  a  dynasty  for  the  British  dominions.     Its 
absolute  power  was,  in  general  terms,  unquestioned  in 
England  even  by  American  agents,  and  was  by  itself 
interpreted  to  extend  over  all  the  colonies,  with  no 
limitation  but  its  own  pleasure ;  it  was  "  absolute  and   Dum 
unaccountable. " 

England,  at  "  the  abdication  "  of  its  throne  by  the 
Stuarts,  was,  as  it  were,  still  free  from  debt;  and  a 
direct  tax  on  America,  for  the  benefit  of  the  English 
treasury,  was,  I  think,  at  that  time,  not  dreamed  of. 
That  the  respective  colonies  should  contribute  to  the 
common  defence  against  the  French  and  Indians,  was 
desired  in  America,  was  earnestly  enjoined  from  Eng- 
land ;  but  the  demand  for  quotas  was  directed  to  the 
colonies  themselves,  and  was  refused  or  granted  by 
the  colonial  assemblies,  as  their  own  policy  prompted. 
The  want  of  concert,  and  the  refusal  of  contributions, 
readily  suggested  the  interference  of  parliament.  I 
find  the  suggestion  to  have  been  actually  made,  in 
1705,  by  a  royalist  in  the  colonies,  in  a  memorial  to 
the  lords  of  trade ;  but  the  proposition  seems  to  have 
remained  unnoticed  by  the  ministry:  our  colonial 
records  exhibit  no  alarm.  The  institution  of  a  general  1710. 
post-office  was  valued  as  a  convenience,  not  dreaded 
as  a  tax.  If  the  declaratory  acts,  by  which  every  one 
of  the  colonies  asserted  their  right  to  the  privileges  of 
Magna  Charta,  to  the  feudal  liberty  of  freedom  from 
taxation  except  with  their  own  consent,  were  always 
disallowed  by  the  crown,  it  was  done  silently,  and  the 
strife  on  the  power  of  parliament  to  tax  the  colonies 
was  certainly  adjourned.  The  colonial  legislatures  had 
their  own  budgets;  and  financial  questions  arose — 


102  PARLIAMENT  AND  THE  COLONIES. 

CHAP.  Shall  the  grants  be  generally  for  the  use  of  the  crown, 
x^v^L,  or  carefully  limited  for  specific  purposes?  Shall  the 
moneys  levied  be  confided  to  an  officer  of  royal  ap- 
pointment, or  to  a  treasurer  responsible  to  the  legisla- 
ture ?  Shall  the  revenue  be  granted  permanently,  or 
from  year  to  year?  Shall  the  salaries  of  the  royal 
judges  and  the  royal  governor  be  fixed,  or  depend  an- 
nually on  the  popular  contentment?  These  were 
questions  consistent  with  the  relations  between  me- 
tropolis and  colony ;  but  the  supreme  power  of  parlia- 
ment to  tax  at  its  discretion,  was  not  yet  maintained  in 
England — was  always  denied  in  America. 

The  colonial  press,  in  spite  of  royal  instructions,  was 
generally  as  free  in  America  as  in  any  part  of  the 
world.  In  matters  of  religion,  intellectual  freedom 
was  viewed,  in  the  colonies  as  in  England,  as  a  Protes- 
tant question ;  and  the  outcry  against  "  Popery  and 
slavery  "  generated  equally  bitter  hos'tility  towards  the 
Roman  Catholic  church.  England,  moreover,  cherish- 
ed a  steady  purpose  of  disseminating  Episcopacy ;  yet 
the  political  effect  of  this  endeavor  was  inconsiderable. 
Similarity  in  religious  institutions  would,  it  is  true, 
nurse  a  sympathy  with  England ;  but  in  South  Caro- 
lina, in  Maryland,  laymen  aspired  to  dominion  over  the 
church.  American  Episcopacy,  without  an  American 
bishop,  was  a  solecism ;  and  an  American  bishop  was 
feared  as  an  emblem  of  independence.  Besides,  if  the 
advowson  of  the  churches  was  reserved  to  the  governor, 
the  people  took  no  interest  in  them ;  and  religion  can  be 
propagated  only  by  consent.  If,  on  the  contrary,  the 
advowson  remained  with  the  parish,  the  church  became 
popular,  and  inclined  to  independence.  If,  as  in  Vir- 
ginia, the  relations  between  priest  and  people  were  not 
accurately  defined ;  if,  among  the  missionaries,  some, 


PARLIAMENT  AND  THE  COLONIES  103 

of  feeble  minds  and  uncertain  morals,  prodigious  zeal-  CHAP. 
ots  from  covetousness,  sought,  by  appeals  to  England,  ^~ : 
to  clutch  at  a  monopoly  of  ecclesiastical  gains  ;  if  legal 
questions  arose, — the  institution  became  the  theme  of 
dispute,  and  an  instrument  for  educating  the  people 
into  strife  with  their  English  superiors.     The  crown 
ncorporated  and  favored  the  Society  for  Propagating 
the  Gospel  in  Foreign  Parts. 

The  security  of  personal  freedom  was  not  formally 
denied  to  America.  Massachusetts,  in  an  enactment,  16912. 
claimed  the  full  benefit  of  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus : 
"  the  privilege  had  not  yet  been  granted  to  the  planta- 
tions," was  the  reply  even  of  Lord  Somers ;  it  was  not 
become  a  vested  right;  and  the  act  was  disallowed. 
When,  afterwards,  the  privilege  was  affirmed  by 
Queen  Anne,  the  burgesses  of  Virginia,  in  their  grati- 
tude, did  but  esteem  it  "  an  assertion  to  her  subjects 
of  their  just  rights  and  properties."  England  conceded 
the  security  of  personal  freedom  as  a  boon ;  America 
claimed  it  as  a  birthright. 

In  the  contests  respecting  the  judiciary,  the  crown 
gained  the  advantage.  New  England  had  not  permit- 
ted appeals  to  the  king  in  council ;  the  permission  of 
appeal  was  insisted  upon  in  all  the  colonies.  Thus,  in 
the  settlement  of  American  disputes,  the  ultimate  tri- 
bunal was  in  England ;  and  the  English  crown  gained 
the  appointment  of  the  judges  in  nearly  every  colony. 
Where  the  people  selected  them,  as  in  Connecticut 
and  Rhode  Island,  they  were  chosen  annually,  and  the 
public  preference,  free  from  fickleness,  gave  stability 
to  the  office ;  where  the  appointment  rested  with  the 
royal  governor,  the  popular  instinct  desired  for  the 
judges  an  independent  tenure. 

To  "  make  most  of  the  money  centre  in  England," 


104  PARLIAMENT  AND  THE  COLONIES. 

CHAP,  the  lords  of  trade  proposed  a  regulation  of  the  colonial 
^^^  currency,  by  reducing  all  the  coin  of  America  to  one 
standard.  The  proclamation  of  Queen  Anne  was  not 
designed  to  preserve  among  the  colonies  the  English 
basis :  on  the  contrary,  it  confirmed  to  all  the  colonies 
a  depreciated  currency,  but  endeavored  to  make  the 
depreciation  uniform  and  safe  against  change.  In  a 
word,  England  sought  to  establish  for  itself  a  fixed 
standard  of  gold  and  silver ;  for  the  colonies,  a  fixed 
standard  of  depreciation.  As  the  necessities  of  the 
colonies  had  led  them  of  themselves  to  depreciate  their 
currency,  the  first  object  of  England  was  gained,  and 
it  therefore  monopolized  all  gold  and  silver.  Even  the 
shillings  of  early  coinage  in  Massachusetts  were  nearly 
all  gathered  up,  and  remitted ;  but  the  equality  of  de- 
preciation could  never  be  maintained  against  the  rival 
cupidity  of  the  competitors  in  bills  of  credit. 

The  enforcement  of  the  mercantile  system,  in  its 
intensest  form,  is  also  a  characteristic  of  the  policy  of 
the  aristocratic  revolution  of  England.  By  the  corn- 
laws,  English  agriculture  became  an  associate  in  the 
system  of  artificial  legislation.  "  The  value  of  lands  " 
began  to  be  urged  as  a  motive  for  oppressing  the  colo- 
1696.  nies.  The  affairs  of  the  plantations  were,  in  1696, 
ay*  intrusted  permanently  to  the  commissioners  who  formed 
the  board  of  trade ;  and  all  questions  on  colonial  lib- 
erty and  afTairs  were  decided  from  the  point  of  view 
of  English  commerce. 

]iif?  All  former  acts  giving  a  monopoly  of  the  colonial 
wear  trade  to  England  were  renewed,  and,  to  effect  their 
aca?.  rigid  execution,  the  paramount  authority  of  parliament 
MVL  was  strictly  asserted.  Colonial  commerce  could  be 
"andS  conducted  only  in  ships  built,  owned,  and  commanded 
w* IIL  by  the  people  of  England  or  of  the  colonies.  All  gov- 


PARLIAMENT  AND  THE  COLONIES.  105 

ernors,  in  the  charter  colonies,  as  well  as  the  royal  prov-  CHAP. 
inces,  were  compelled  to  take  oath  to  do  their  utmost  — * — • 
that  every  clause  in  these  acts  be  punctually  observed,    ^a™" 
Officers  of  the  revenue  in  America  were  invested  with  w.nm. 

C.  XX. 

all  the  powers  conferred  by  act  of  parliament  on  those  *69 
in  England.  The  intercolonial  trade  had  been  bur- 
dened with  taxation,  and  the  payment  of  the  tax  was 
interpreted  as  giving  to  the  goods  the  right  of  being 
exported  any  where :  this  liberty  was  denied.  The 
immense  American  domain  was  reserved  exclusively 
for  English  subjects,  or  for  those  who  obtained  from 
the  privy  council  a  permission  to  purchase.  The  propri- 
etary charters  were  modified — it  is  the  first  act  of  par- 
liament of  that  nature — by  conferring  on  the  crown  a  *i& 
negative  on  the  choice  of  the  governors  in  the  charter 
colonies ;  and  the  paramount  legislative  authority  of 
parliament  was  asserted  by  declaring  illegal,  null,  and 
void,  every  colonial  act  or  usage,  present  or  future, 
which  might  be  in  any  wise  repugnant  "  to  this  pres- 
ent act,  or  to  any  other  law  hereafter  to  be  made  in 
the  kingdom,  so  far  as  such  law  shall  relate  to  the 
plantations."  Such  was  the  spirit  of  English  legisla- 
tion for  its  colonies,  at  the  great  moment  when  Eng- 
land asserted  its  aristocratic  liberties. 

As  yet  the  owners  of  land  were  not  sufficiently 
pledged  to  the  colonial  system.  Wool  was  the  great 
staple  of  England,  and  its  growers  and  manufacturers 
envied  the  colonies  the  possession  of  a  flock  of  sheep, 
a  spindle,  or  a  loom.  The  preamble  to  an  act  of  par- 
liament  avows  the  motive  for  a  restraining  law,  in  the 
conviction  that  colonial  industry  would  "  inevitably 
sink  the  value  of  lands"  in  England.  The  public 
mind  of  the  mother  country  could  esteem  the  present 
interest  of  its  landholders  paramount  to  natural  justice 

VOL.  III.  14 


106  PARLIAMENT  AND  THE  COLONIES. 

CHAP.  The  clause,  which  I  am  about  to  cite,  is  a  memorial  of 

XIX. 

*^-^-  a  delusion  which  once  pervaded  all  Western  Europe, 
* ia  and  which  has  already  so  passed  away,  that  men  grow 
incredulous  of  its  former  existence  : — "  After  the  first 
day  of  December,  1699,  no  wool,  or  manufacture  made 
or  mixed  with  wool,  being  the  produce  or  manufacture 
of  any  of  the  English  plantations  in  America,  shall  be 
loaden  in  any  ship  or  vessel,  upon  any  pretence  what- 
soever,— nor  loaden  upon  any  horse,  cart,  or  other  car- 
riage,— to  be  carried  out  of  the  English  plantations  to 
any  other  of  the  said  plantations,  or  to.  any  other  place 
whatsoever."  Thus  the  fabrics  of  Connecticut  might 
not  seek  a  market  in  Massachusetts,  or  be  carried  to 
Albany  to  traffic  with  the  Indians.  An  English  mari- 
ner  might  not  purchase  in  Boston  woollens  of  a  greater 
value  than  forty  shillings.  The  mercantile  system  of 
England,  in  its  relations  with  foreign  states,  sought  a 
convenient  tariff;  in  the  colonies,  it  prohibited  industry. 
And  the  intolerable  injustice  was  not  perceived. 
The  interests  of  the  landed  proprietors  with  the  mo- 
nopolies of  commerce  and  manufactures,  jointly  fostered 
by  artificial  legislation,  corrupted  the  public  judgment, 

so  that  there  was  no  secret  compunction.     Even  the 

8  and  *  •         i    i 

*£™>  bounty  on  naval  stores  was  not  intended  as  a  compen- 
sation, but  grew  out  of  the  efforts  of  Sweden  to  in- 
fringe the  mercantile  system  of  England,  and  was  ac- 
companied by  a  proviso  which  extended  the  jurisdiction 
of  parliament  to  every  grove  north  of  the  Delaware. 
Every  pitch-pine  tree,  not  in  an  enclosure,  was  hence- 
forward sacred  to  the  purposes  of  the  English  navy ; 
and,  in  the  undivided  domain,  no  tree  fit  for  a  mast 
might  be  cut  without  the  queen's  license.  Thus  the 
3 .\nn«,  bounty  of  the  English  parliament  was  blended  with 
monopoly,  while  the  colonists  were  constantly  invited 


,          PARLIAMENT  AND  THE  COLONIES.          •  107 

to  cease  the  manufacture  of  wool,  and  produce  naval  CHAP. 

JLIJw. 

stores.  — >~ 

In  Virginia,  the  poverty  of  the  people  compelled 
them  to  attempt  coarse  manufactures,  or  to  go  unclad ; 
jet  Nicholson,  the  royal  governor,  calmly  advised  that 
parliament  should  forbid  the  Virginians  to  make  their 
own  clothing.  Spotswood  repeats  the  complaint —  ^™£ 
"  The  people,  more  of  necessity  than  of  inclination, 
attempt  to  clothe  themselves  with  their  own  manufac- 
tures ;  "  adding  that "  it  is  certainly  necessary  to  divert 
their  application  to  some  commodity  less  prejudicial  to 
the  trade  of  Great  Britain."  The  charter  colonies  are  1701. 
reproached  by  the  lords  of  trade,  "  with  promoting  and  cTcom- 
propagatmg  woollen  and  other  manufactures  proper  to  448»478- 
England."  The  English  need  not  fear  to  conquer 
Canada ; — such  was  the  reasoning  of  an  American  Dum 
agent ; — for,  in  Canada,  "  where  the  cold  is  extreme, 
and  snow  lies  so  long  on  the  ground,  sheep  will 
never  thrive  so  as  to  make  the  woollen  manufac- 
tures possible,  which  is  the  only  thing  that  can  make 
a  plantation  unprofitable  to  the  crown."  The  policy 
was  continued  by  every  administration.  "  Should 
our  sovereign  authority  of  legislative  and  commercial 
control  be  denied,"  said  the  elder  Pitt,  seventy  years 
afterwards,  "  I  would  not  suffer  even  a  nail  for  a  horse- 
shoe to  be  manufactured  in  America  ;  "  and,  at  the  be- 
ginning of  the  eighteenth  century,  the  lords  of  trade 
and  plantations,  to  effect  their  purposes  of  monopoly, 
proposed  that  every  charter  should,  by  the  legislative 
power  of  the  kingdom,  be  reassumed  to  the  crown. 

The  charters  were  royal  grants,  and  a  parliament 
which  had  disfranchised  a  dynasty  disdained  to  consid- 
er their  violation  a  just  ground  for  resistance.  It  placed 
its  own  power  alike  above  the  authority  by  which 


108  TENDENCY  TO  INDEPENDENCE. 


CxixP'  ^16^  ^a^  ^een  conceded,  ant^  above  the  colonies  which 
~  —  ~  possessed  them.  From  legislating  on  commerce  and 
industry,  it  proceeded  to  legislate  on  government  ;  and, 
if  it  omitted  to  startle  the  colonies  by  the  avowal,  it 
plainly  held  the  maxim  as  indisputable,  that  it  might 
legislate  for  them  in  all  cases  whatsoever. 

These  relations,  placing  the  property,  the  personal 
freedom,  the  industry,  the  chartered  liberties  of  the 
colonies,  in  the  good  will,  and  under  "  the  absolute 
power,"  of  the  English  legislature,  could  not  but  lead 
to  independence  ;  and  the  English  were  the  first  to 
perceive  the  tendency. 

The  insurrection  in  New  England,  in  1689,  excited 
alarm,  as  an  indication  of  a  daring  spirit.  In  1701, 
the  lords  of  trade,  in  a  public  document,  declared  "  the 
independency  the  colonies  thirst  after  is  now  notori- 
ous." —  "  Commonwealth  notions  improve  daily,"  wrote 
Quarry,  in  1703;  "and,  if  it  be  not  checked  in  time, 
the  rights  and  privileges  of  English  subjects  will  be 
thought  too  narrow."  In  1705,  it  was  said  in  print, 
"  The  colonists  will,  in  process  of  time,  cast  off  their 
allegiance  to  England,  and  set  up  a  government  of 
their  own  ;  "  and  by  degrees  it  came  to  be  said,  "  by 
people  of  all  conditions  and  qualities,  that  their  increas- 
ing numbers  and  wealth,  joined  to  their  great  distance 
from  Britain,  would  give  them  an  opportunity,  in  the 
course  of  some  years,  to  throw  off  their  dependence 
on  the  nation,  and  declare  themselves  a  free  state,  if 
not  curbed  in  time,  by  being  made  entirely  subject  to 
the  crown."  "  Some  great  men  professed  their  belief 
'of  the  feasibleness  of  it,  and  the  probability  of  its 
some  time  or  other  actually  coming  to  pass." 


CHAPTER    XX. 

FRANCE  AND  THE  VALLEY   OF  THE  MISSISSIPPI. 


IF  our  country,  in  the  inherent  opposition  between  CHAP. 
its  principles  and  the  English  system,  was  as  ripe  for  ^^ 
governing  itself  in  1689  as  in  1776,  the  colonists  dis- 
claimed, and  truly,  a  present  passion  for  independence. 
A  deep  instinct  gave  assurance  that  the  time  was  not 
yet  come.  They  were  not  merely  colonists  of  England, 
but  they  were  riveted  into  an  immense  colonial  system, 
which  every  commercial  country  in  Europe  had  assisted 
to  frame,  and  which  bound  in  its  strong  bonds  every 
other  quarter  of  the  globe.  The  question  of  independ- 
ence would  be  not  a  private  strife  with  England,  but  a 
revolution  in  the  commerce  and  in  the  policy  of  the 
world, — in  the  present  fortunes,  and,  still  more,  in  the 
prospects  of  humanity  itself.  As  yet,  there  was  no 
union  among  the  settlements  that  fringed  the  Atlantic ; 
and  but  one  nation  in  Europe  would,  at  that  day,  have 
tolerated — not  one  would  have  fostered — an  insurrec- 
tion, Spain,  Spanish  Belgium,  Holland,  and  Austria, 
were  then  the  allies  of  England  against  France,  which, 
'  by  centralizing  its  power,  and  by  well-considered  plans 
of  territorial  aggrandizement,  excited  the  dread  of  a 
universal  monarchy.  When  Austria,  with  Belgium, 
shall  abandon  its  hereditary  warfare  against  France , 
when  Spain  and  Holland,  favored  by  the  armed  neu- 
Irality  of  Portugal,  Sweden,  Denmark,  Prussia,  and 


110  EUROPEAN   COLONIAL  SYSTEM. 

CHAP.  Russia,  shall  be  ready  to  join  with  France  in  repressing 

~  the  commercial  ambition  of  England ; — then,  and  not 

till  then,  American  independence  becomes  possible. 
Those  changes,  extraordinary  and  improbable  as  they 
might  have  seemed,  were  to  spring  from  the  false  prin- 
ciples of  the  mercantile  system,  which  made  France 
and  England  enemies.  Our  borders  were  become  the 
scenes  of  jealous  collision ;  our  soil  was  the  destined 
battle-ground  on  which  the  grand  conflict  of  the  rivals 
for  commercial  privilege  was  to  begin.  The  struggles 
for  maritime  and  colonial  dominion,  which  transformed 
the  unsuccessful  competitors  for  supremacy  into  the 
defenders  of  the  freedom  of  the  seas,  having,  in  their 
progress,  taught  our  fathers  union,  secured  to  our 
country  the  opportunity  of  independence. 

The  mercantile  system  placed  the  benefit  of  com- 
merce, not  in  a  reciprocity  of  exchanges,  but  in  a 
favorable  balance  of  trade.  Its  whole  wisdom  was,  to 
sell  as  much  as  possible — to  buy  as  little  as  possible. 
Pushed  to  its  extreme,  the  policy  would  destroy  all 
commerce  :  it  might  further  the  selfish  aims  of  an  indi- 
vidual nation ;  the  commerce  of  the  world  could  flour- 
ish only  in  spite  of  it.  In  its  mitigated  form,  it  was  a 
necessary  source  of  European  wars ;  for  each  nation, 
in  its  traffic,  sought  to  levy  tribute  in  favor  of  its  in- 
dustry, and  the  adjustment  of  tariffs  and  commercial 
privileges  was  the  constant  subject  of  negotiations 
among  states.  The  jealousy  of  one  country  envied 
the  wealth  of  a  rival  as  its  own  loss. 

Territorial  aggrandizement  was  also  desired  and 
feared,  in  reference  to  its  influence  on  European  com- 
merce ;  and,  as  France,  in  its  ambitious  progress,  en- 
croached upon  the  German  empire  and  the  Spanish 
Netherlands,  the  mercantile  interests  of  England  led 


EUROPEAN   COLONIAL  SYSTEM.  Ill 

directly  to  an  alliance  with  Austria  as  the  head  of  the  CHAP. 

XX. 

empire,  and  with  Spain  as  the  sovereign  of  Belgium.      ^^~ 

Thus  the  commercial  interest  was,  in  European 
politics,  become  paramount ;  it  framed  alliances,  reg- 
ulated wars,  dictated  treaties,  and  established  barriers 
against  conquest. 

The  discovery  of  America,  and  of  the  ocean-path  to 
India,  had  created  maritime  commerce,  and  the  great 
European  colonial  system  had  united  the  world.  Now, 
for  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  man,  the  oceans  vin- 
dicated their  rights  as  natural  highways ;  now,  for  the 
first  time,  great  maritime  powers  struggled  for  domin- 
ion on  the  high  seas.  The  world  entered  on  a  new 
epoch. 

Ancient  navigation  kept  near  the  coast,  or  was  but 
a  passage  from  isle  to  isle ;  commerce  now  selected, 
of  choice,  the  boundless  deep. 

The  three  ancient  continents  were  divided  by  no 
wide  seas,  and  their  intercourse  was  chiefly  by  land. 
Their  voyages  were,  like  ours  on  Lake  Erie,  a  contin- 
uance of  internal  trade ;  the  vastness  of  their  transac- 
tions was  measured,  not  by  tonnage,  but  by  counting 
caravans  and  camels.  But  now,  for  the  wilderness 
commerce  substituted  the  sea ;  for  camels,  merchant- 
men ;  for  caravans,  fleets  and  convoys. 

The  ancients  were  restricted  in  the  objects  of  com- 
merce ;  for  how  could  rice  be  brought  across  continents 
from  the  Ganges,  or  sugar  from  Bengal  ?  But  now 
commerce  gathered  every  production  from  the  East  and 
the  West ;  tea,  sugar,  and  coffee,  from  the  plantations 
of  China  and  Hindostan ;  masts  from  American  forests ; 
furs  from  Hudson's  Bay ;  men  from  Africa. 

With  the  expansion  of  commerce,  the  forms  of  busi- 
ness were  changing.  Of  old,  no  dealers  in  credit 


112  EUROPEAN   COLONIAL   SYSTEM. 

CHAP,  existed  between  the  merchant  and  the  producer.  The 
-^ —  Greeks  and  Romans  were  hard-money  men ;  their  lan- 
guage has  no  word  for  bank  notes  or  currency ;  with 
them  there  was  no  stock  market,  no  brokers'  board,  no 
negotiable  scrip  of  kingdom  or  commonwealth.  Pub- 
lic expenses  were  borne  by  direct  taxes,  or  by  loans 
from  rich  citizens,  soon  to  be  cancelled,  and  never 
funded.  The  expansion  of  commerce  gave  birth  to 
immense  masses  of  floating  credits ;  larger  sums  than 
the  whole  revenue  of  an  ancient  state  were  transferred 
from  continent  to  continent  by  bills  of  exchange  ;  and, 
when  the  mercantile  system  grew  strong  enough  to 
originate  wars,  it  also  gained  power  to  subject  national 
credit  to  the  floating  credits  of  commerce. 

Every  commercial  state  of  the  earlier  world  had 
been  but  a  town  with  its  territory;  the  Phrenician, 
Greek,  and  Italian  republics,  each  was  a  city  govern- 
ment, retaining  its  municipal  character  with  the  en- 
largement of  its  jurisdiction  and  the  diffusion  of  its 
colonies.  The  great  European  maritime  powers  were 
vast  monarchies,  grasping  at  continents  for  their  planta- 
tions. In  the  tropical  isles  of  America  and  the  East, 
they  made  their  gardens  for  the  fruits  of  the  torrid 
zone ;  the  Cordilleras  and  the  Andes  supplied  their 
mints  with  bullion ;  the  most  inviting  points  on  the 
coasts  of  Africa  and  Asia  were  selected  as  commercial 
stations ;  and  the  temperate  regions  of  America  were 
to  be  filled  with  agriculturists,  whose  swarming  in- 
crease— such  was  the  universal  metropolitan  aspiration 
— should  lead  to  the  infinite  consumption  of  European 
goods. 

That  the  mercantile  system  should  be  applied  by 
each  nation  to  its  own  colonies,  was  universally  tole- 
rated by  the  political  morality  of  that  day.  Thus  each 


COLONIAL  SYSTEM  OF  PORTUGAL.  113 

metropolis  was  at  war  with  the  present  interests  and  CHAP. 
natural  rights  of  its  colonies ;  and,  as  the  European  — -^ 
colonial  system  was  established  on  every  continent ;  as 
the  single  colonies  were,  each  by  itself,  too  feeble  for 
resistance ;  colonial  oppression  was  destined  to  endure 
as  long,  at  least,  as  the  union  of  the  oppressors.  But 
the  commercial  jealousies  of  Europe  extended,  from  the 
first,  to  European  colonies ;  and  the  home  relations  of 
the  states  of  the  Old  World  to  each  other  were  finally 
surpassed  in  importance  by  the  transatlantic  conflicts 
with  which  they  were  identified.  The  mercantile  sys- 
tem, being  founded  in  error  and  injustice,  was  doomed 
not  only  itself  to  expire,  but,  by  overthrowing  the 
mighty  fabric  of  the  colonial  system,  to  emancipate 
commerce,  and  open  a  boundless  career  to  human 
hope. 

That  colonial  system  all  Western  Europe  had  con- 
tributed to  build.     Even  before  the  discovery  of  Amer- 
ica,  Portugal  had  reached  Madeira  and  the  Azores,  the  1448. 
Cape  Verd  Islands  and  Congo;  within  six  years  after  1434! 
the  discovery  of  Hayti,  the  intrepid  Vasco  da  Gama, 
following  where  no  European,  where  none  but  Afri- 
cans from  Carthage,  had  preceded,  turned  the  Cape  of 
Good  Hope,  and  arrived  at  Mozambique  ;  and,  passing 
the  Arabian  peninsula,  landed  at  Calicut,  and  made  an 
establishment  at  Cochin. 

Within  a  few  short  years,  the  brilliant  temerity  of 
Portugal  achieved  establishments  on  Western  and 
Eastern  Africa,  in  Arabia  and  Persia,  in  Hindostan  and 
the  Eastern  isles,  and  in  Brazil.  The  intense  applica- 
tion of  the  system  of  monopoly,  combined  with  the 
despotism  of  the  sovereign  and  the  priesthood,  precipi- 
tated the  decay  of  Portuguese  commerce  in  advance  of 
the  decay  of  the  mercantile  system ;  and  the  Moors, 
VOL.  in.  15 


114  COLONIAL   SYSTEM   OF  SPAIN   AND    HOLLAND. 

CHAP,  the  Persians,  Holland,  and  Spain,  dismantled  Portugal 
~~~~  of  her  possessions  at  so  early  a  period,  that  she  was 
never  involved,  as  a  leading  party,  in  the  early  wars  of 
North  America. 

Far  different  were  the  relations  of  Spain  with  our 
colonial  history.  The  world  had  been  divided  by  Pope 
Alexander  VI.  between  Portugal  and  Spain :  to  the 
former  the  East  had  been  allotted;  and,  therefore, 
Spain  never  reached  the  Asiatic  world  except  by  trav- 
elling west,  and,  obedient  to  the  Roman  see,  never 
claimed  possession  of  any  territory  in  Asia  beyond  the 
Philippine  Isles.  But  in  America  there  grew  up  a 
Spanish  world  safe  against  conquest,  from  its  boundless 
extent,  yet  doubly  momentous  to  our  fathers,  from  its 
vicinity  and  its  commercial  system.  Occupying  Florida 
on  our  south,  Spain  was  easily  involved  in  controversy 
with  England  on  the  subject  of  reciprocal  territorial 
encroachments ;  and,  carefully  excluding  foreigners 
from  all  participation  in  her  colonial  trade,  she  could 
not  but  arouse  the  cupidity  of  English  commerce, 
bent  on  extending  itself,  if  necessary,  by  force. 
Yet  the  colonial  maxims,  in  conformity  with  which 
Spain  had  spread  its  hierarchy,  its  missions,  its 
garrisons,  and  its  inquisition,  over  islands  and  half  a 
continent,  were  recognized  by  England ;  and  both 
powers  were,  by  their  legislation,  pledged  to  the  sys- 
tem of  colonial  monopoly. 

Holland  had  emerged  into  existence  as  the  advocate 
and  example  of  maritime  freedom,  and  had,  moreover, 
been  ejected  from  the  continent  of  North  America. 
Yet,  as  a  land  power,  it  needed  the  alliance  of  England 
as  a  barrier  against  France  ;  and  the  aristocratic  repub- 
lic, now  itself  possessing  precious  spice  islands  in  the 
Indian  Seas,  cherished  also  the  maxim  of  monopoly. 


COMMERCIAL  RIVALRY  OF  FRANCE   AND   ENGLAND.  115 

But  the  two  powers,  of  which  the  ambition  was  CHAP 
most  actively  interested  in  the  colonial  system,  were  — ^ 
France  and  England,  both  stern  advocates  of  colonial 
monopoly,  arid  both  jealous  competitors  for  new  ac- 
quisitions. 

The  political  condition  of  France  rendered  her  com- 
mercial advancement  possible.  "LouisXIV. ,on  coming  Cha_ 
of  age,  entering  parliament  with  a  whip  in  his  hand,  is 
the  emblem  of  absolute  monarchy."  The  feudal  system, 
that  great  antagonist  to  free  industry,  was  subdued ; 
the  struggle  between  monarchy  and  the  aristocracy  of 
blood  was  over;  and  the  people  of  France, — aided  by 
Louis  XIV.,  who  detested  aristocracy,  and  left  as  a 
legacy  to  his  posterity  his  advice  to  a  continuance  of 
that  hatred, — emerged  into  existence,  one  day  to  assert 
its  power.  While  absolute  monarchy  was  the  period 
of  transition  from  hereditary  privilege  to  equality; 
while  the  memory  of  republican  virtues  was  kept  alive 
by  the  poetry  of  Corneille,  and  the  vices  of  courts  were 
rebuked  in  the  fictions  of  Fenelon, — the  policy  of 
France  gave  dignity  to  the  class  of  citizens.  In  the 
magistracy,  as  in  the  church,  they  could  reach  high 
employments ;  the  meanest  burgher  could  have  audi- 
ence of  the  king ;  and  the  members  of  the  royal  council 
were,  almost  without  exception,  selected  from  the  ig- 
noble. Colbert  and  Louvois  were  not  of  the  high 
nobility.  Thus  the  great  middling  class  was  constantly 
increasing  in  importance  ;  and  the  energies  of  France, 
if  not  employed  in  arms  for  aggrandizement,  began  to 
be  husbanded  for  commerce  and  the  arts. 

Even  before  the  days  of  Colbert,  the  colonial  rivalry 
with  England  had  begun.  When  Queen  Elizabeth 
gave  a  charter  to  a  first  not  very  successful  English 


116  COMMERCIAL   RIVALRY   OF  FRANCE   AND   ENGLAND. 

CHAP.  East  India  company,  France,  under  Richelieu,  strug- 

~ gled  also,  though  vainly,  to  share  the  great  commerce 

with  Asia.     The  same  year  in  which  England  took 
possession  of  Barbadoes,  Frenchmen  occupied  the  half 
of  St.  Christopher's.     Did  England  add  half  St.  Chris- 
topher's, Nevis,  and,  at  last,  Jamaica, — France  gained 
Martinique  and  Guadaloupe,  with  smaller  islets,  found- 
ed a  colony  at  Cayenne,  and,  by  the  aid  of  bucaniers, 
took  possession  of  the  west  of  Hayti.    England,  by  its 
devices  of  tariffs  and  prohibitions,  and  by  the  royal 
assent  to  the  act  of  navigation,  sought  to  call  into  ac- 
1664  ti°n  everj  power  of  production,  hardly  a  year  before 
16*67    Colbert  hoped,  in  like  manner,  by  artificial  legislation, 
to  foster  the  manufactures  and  finances  of  France,  and 
to  insure  to  that  kingdom  spacious  seaports,  canals, 
colonies,  and  a  navy.     The  English  East  India  com- 
pany had  but  just  revived,  under  Charles  II.,  when 
1664   France  also  gave  privileges  to  an  East  India  commer- 
cial corporation  ;  and,  if  the  folly  of  that  corporation  in 
planting  on  the  Island  of  Madagascar,  where  there  was 
nothing  to  sell  or  to  buy,  effected  its  decline,  still  the 
1675.  banner  of  the  Bourbons  reached  Malabar  and  Coro- 
mandel.      The    fourth    African    company,   with   the 
1674.  Stuarts  for  stockholders,  and  the  slave  trade  for  its 
1679.  object,  soon  found  a  rival  in  the  Senegal  company; 
and,  just  at  the  time  when  the  French  king  was  most 
1685.  zealous  for  the  conversion  of  the  Huguenots,  he  estab- 
lished a  Guinea  company  to  trade  from  Sierra  Leone 
to  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope.     France  was,  through 
Colbert  and  Seignelay,  become  a  great  naval  power, 
and  had  given  her  colonial  system  an   extent  even 
vaster  than  that  of  the  British.     So  eager  was  she  in 
her  rivalry  on  the  ocean,  so  menacing  was  the  compe- 


RIVALRY   OF  FRANCE   AND   ENGLAND.  117 

tition  of  her  workshops  in  every  article  of  ingenious  CHAP 
manufacture,  that  the  spirit  of  monopoly  set  its  brand  ^-*-~ 
upon  language,  and  men's  consciences  became  so  far 
debauched   as   to   call   England    and  France    natural 
enemies. 

Memory  fostered  the  national  antipathy ;  France  had 
not  forgotten  English  invasions  of  her  soil,  English 
victories  over  her  sons. 

France  adhered  to  the  old  religion,  and  the  revoca- 
tion of  the  edict  of  Nantz  made  it  a  Catholic  empire  ; 
England  succeeded  in  a  Protestant  revolution,  which 
made  political  power  a  monopoly  of  the  Anglican 
Church,  disfranchised  all  Catholics,  and  even  subjected 
them,  in  Ireland,  to  a  legal  despotism. 

In  England,  freedom  of  mind  made  its  way  through 
a  series  of  aristocratic  and  plebeian  sects,  each  of  which 
found  its  support  in  the  Bible ;  and  the  progress  was 
so  gradual,  and  under  such  variety  of  forms,  both 
among  the  people  and  among  philosophers,  that  the 
civil  institutions  were  not  endangered,  even  when 
freedom  degenerated  into  skepticism  or  infidelity.  In 
France,  freedom  of  mind  was  introduced  by  philosophy, 
and,  making  its  way,  at  one  bound,  to  the  absolute 
skepticism  of  pure  reason,  rejected  every  prejudice, 
and  menaced  the  institutions  of  church  and  of  state 
with  an  overthrow. 

In  England,  philosophy  existed  as  an  empirical  sci- 
ence ;  men  measured  and  weighed  the  outward  world, 
and  constructed  the  prevailing  systems  of  morals  and 
metaphysics  on  observation  and  the  senses.  In  France, 
the  philosophic  mind,  under  the  guidance  of  Descartes, 
of  Fenelon,  of  Leibnitz, — who  belongs  to  the  French 
world, — of  Malebranche,  assumed  a  character  alike 
spiritual  and  universal. 


118  COLONIES   OF  FRANCE  IN   NORTH  AMERICA. 

CHAP.       Still    more    opposite    were    the    governments.     IE 

«^~  France,  feudal  monarchy  had  been  quelled  by  a  mili- 
tary monarchy ;  in  England,  it  had  yielded  to  a  parlia- 
mentary monarchy,  in  which  government  rested  on 
property.  France  sustained  the  principle  of  legitima- 
cy ;  England  had  selected  its  own  sovereign,  and  to 
dispute  his  claims  involved  not  only  a  question  of  na- 
tional law,  but  of  English  independence. 

To  these  causes  of  animosity,  springing  from  the 
rivalry  in  manufactures  and  in  commercial  stations, 
from  contrasts  in  religion,  philosophy,  opinion,  and 
government,  there  was  added  a  struggle  for  territory 
in  North  America.  Not  only  in  the  West  Indies,  in 
the  East  Indies,  in  Africa,  were  France  and  England 
neighbors,— over  far  the  largest  part  of  our  country 
Louis  XIV.  claimed  to  be  the  sovereign ;  and  the  prel- 
ude to  the  overthrow  of  the  European  colonial  system, 
which  was  sure  to  be  also  the  overthrow  of  the  mer- 
cantile system,  was  destined  to  be  the  mighty  struggle 
for  the  central  regions  of  our  republic. 

The  first  permanent  efforts  of  French  enterprise,  in 
colonizing  America,  preceded  any  permanent  English 
settlement  north  of  the  Potomac.  Years  before  the 
Pilgrims  anchored  within  Cape  Cod,  the  Roman  church 
had  been  planted,  by  missionaries  from  France,  in  the 

lei!?'  eastern  moiety  of  Maine;  and  Le  Caron,  an  unambi- 
*  tious  Franciscan,  the  companion  of  Champlain,  had 
passed  into  the  hunting-grounds  of  the  Wyandots,  and, 
bound  by  his  vows  to  the  life  of  a  beggar,  had,  on  foot 
or  Pa(^dling  a  bark  canoe,  gone  onward  and  still  on- 
ward,  taking  alms  of  the  savages,  till  he  reached  the 
rivers  of  Lake  Huron. 

1625*      While    Quebec  contained    scarce   fifty  inhabitants, 


COLONIES   OF   FRANCE    IN  NORTH   AMERICA.  119 

priests  of  the  Franciscan  order — Le  Caron,  Viel,  Sa-  CHAP 
gard — had  labored  for  years  as  missionaries  in  Upper  ~~~ 
Canada,  or  made  their  way  to  the  neutral  Huron  tribe 
that  dwelt  on  the  waters  of  the  Niagara. 

After  the  Canada  company  had  been  suppressed,  1622. 
and  their  immunities  had,  for  five  years,  been  enjoyed 
by  the  Calvinists  William  and  Emeric  Caen,  the  hun- 
dred  associates, — Richelieu,  Champlain,  Razilly,  and  1 627, 
opulent  merchants,  being  of  the  number, — by  a  charter 
from  Louis  XIII.,  obtained  a  grant  of  New  France, 
and,  after  the  restoration  of  Quebec  by  its  English  1632 
conquerors,  entered  upon  the  government  of  their  prov- 
ince.    Its  limits  embraced  specifically  the  whole  basin 

Cham- 

of  the  St.  Lawrence,  and  of  such  other  rivers  in  New  v^ylg« 
France  as  flowed  directly  into  the  sea ;  they  included, 
moreover,  Florida,  or  the  country  south  of  Virginia, 
esteemed  a  French  province  in  virtue  of  the  unsuccess- 
ful efforts  of  Coligny. 

Religious  zeal,  not  less  than  commercial  ambition, 
had  influenced  France  to  recover  Canada ;  and  Cham- 
plain,  its  governor,  whose  imperishable  name  will  rival  1632, 
with  posterity  the  fame  of  Smith  and  of  Hudson,  ever 
disinterested  and  compassionate,  full  of  honor  and 
probity,  of  ardent  devotion  and  burning  zeal,  esteemed 
"  the  salvation  of  a  soul  worth  more  than  the  conquest 
of  an  empire."  The  commercial  monopoly  of  a  privi- 
leged company  could  not  foster  a  colony ;  the  climate 
of  the  country  round  Quebec,  "  where  summer  hurries 
through  the  sky,"  did  not  invite  to  agriculture  ;  no  per- 
secutions of  Catholics  swelled  the  stream  of  emigration; 
and,  at  first,  there  was  little,  except  religious  enthusi- 
asm, to  give  vitality  to  the  province.  Touched  by  the 
simplicity  of  the  order  of  St.  Francis,  Champlain  had 
selected  its  priests  of  the  contemplative  class  for  his 


120  THE   ORDER  OF  THE   JESUITS'. 

CHAP,  companions  ;  "  for  they  were  free  from  ambition."   But 

JL^L* 

~  the  aspiring  honor  of  the  Gallican  church  was  inter- 
ested ;  a  prouder  sympathy  was  awakened  among  the 
1632.  devotees  at  court;  and,  the  Franciscans  having,  as  a 
mendicant  order,  been   excluded  from  the  rocks  and 
deserts  of  the  New  World,  the  office  of  converting  the 
Jeryenvee»  heathen  of  Canada,  and  thus  enlarging  the  borders 
Ri632.°n  of    French    dominion,    was   intrusted    solely   to    the 
Jesuits. 

The  establishment  of  "  the  Society  of  Jesus  ''  by 
Loyola  had  been  contemporary  with  the  reformation, 
1539  °^  wh*cn  ft  was  designed  to  arrest  the  progress;  and 
1540.  its  complete  organization  belongs  to  the  period  when 
the  first  full  edition  of  Calvin's  Institutes  saw  the 
light.  Its  members  were,  by  its  rules,  never  to  be- 
come prelates,  and  could  gain  power  and  distinction 
only  by  influence  over  mind.  Their  vows  were,  pov- 
erty, chastity,  absolute  obedience,  and  a  constant  read- 
iness to  go  on  missions  against  heresy  or  heathenism. 
Their  colleges  became  the  best  schools  in  the  world. 
Emancipated,  in  a  great  degree,  from  the  cloistral  forms, 
separated  from  domestic  ties,  constituting  a  community 
essentially  intellectual  as  well  as  essentially  plebeian, 
bf  und  together  by  the  most  perfect  organization,  and 
having  for  their  end  a  control  over  opinion  among  the 
scholars  and  courts  of  Europe  and  throughout  the  hab- 
itable globe,  the  order  of  the  Jesuits  held,  as  its  ruling 
maxims,  the  widest 'diffusion  of  its  influence,  and  the 
closest  internal  unity.  Immediately  on  its  institution, 
their  missionaries,  kindling  with  a  heroism  that  defied 
every  danger  and  endured  every  toil,  made  their  way 
to  the  ends  of  the  earth  ;  they  raised  the  emblem 
of  man's  salvation  on  the  Moluccas,  in  Japan,  in  India, 
in  Thibet,  in  Cochin  China,  and  in  China  ;  they  pene- 


JESUIT  MISSIONARIES   EXTEND   FRENCH   DOMINION.  121 

(rated  Ethiopia,  and  reached  the  Abyssinians ;    they  CHAP 
planted  missions  among  the  Caffres :  in  California,  on  — ^ 
the  banks  of  the  Maranhon,  in  the  plains  of  Paraguay, 
they  invited  the  wildest  of  barbarians  to  the  civilization 
of  Christianity. 

The  genius  of  Champlain,  whose  comprehensive  1632. 
mind  planned  enduring  establishments  for  French 
commerce,  and  a  career  of  discovery  that  should  carry 
the  lilies  of  the  Bourbons  to  the  extremity  of  North 
America,  could  devise  no  method  of  building  up  the 
dominion  of  France  in  Canada  but  by  an  alliance  with 
the  Hurons,  or  of  confirming  that  alliance  but  by  the 
establishment  of  missions.  Such  a  policy  was  con- 
genial to  a  church  which  cherishes  every  member  of 
the  human  race,  without  regard  to  lineage  or  skin.  It 
was,  moreover,  favored  by  the  conditions  of  the  charter 
itself,  which  recognized  the  neophyte  among  the  sav- 
ages as  an  enfranchised  citizen  of  France. 

Thus  it  was  neither  commercial  enterprise  nor  royal 
ambition,  which  carried  the  power  of  France  into  the 
heart  of  our  continent :  the  motive  was  religion.  Re- 
ligious enthusiasm  colonized  New  England ;  and  re- 
ligious enthusiasm  founded  Montreal,  made  a  conquest 
of  the  wilderness  on  the  upper  lakes,  and  explored  the 
Mississippi.  Puritanism  gave  New  England  its  wor- 
ship, and  its  schools;  the  Roman  church  created  for 
Canada  its  altars,  its  hospitals,  and  its  seminaries.  The 
influence  of  Calvin  can  be  traced  in  every  New  Eng- 
land village ;  in  Canada,  the  monuments  of  feudalism 
and  the  Catholic  church  stand  side  by  side ;  and  the 
names  of  Montmorenci  and  Bourbon,  of  Levi  and 
Conde,  are  mingled  with  memorials  of  St.  Athanasius 
and  Augustin,  of  St.  Francis  of  Assisi,  and  Ignatius 
Loyola. 

VOL.  in.  16 


122  JESUIT  MISSIONARIES   EXTEND   FRENCH  DOMINION. 

CHAP.      Within  three  years  after  the  second  occupation  of 
-  ~  Canada,  the  number  of  Jesuit  priests  in  the  province 
1636'  reac^e(^  fifteen  j  and  every  tradition  bears  testimony  to 
Relation  ^e^Y  worth.    They  had  the  faults  of  ascetic  superstition  ; 
des£8tui  but  the  horrors  of  a  Canadian  life  in  the  wilderness 
M??a    were  resisted  by  an  invincible  passive  courage,  and  a 
^eeP  internal  tranquillity.     Away  from  the  amenities 
of  life,  away  from  the  opportunities  of  vain-glory,  they 
became  dead  to  the  world,  and  possessed  their  souls  in 
unalterable  peace.     The  few  who  lived  to  grow  old, 
though  bowed  by  the  toils  of  a  long  mission,  still  kin- 
dled with  the  fervor  of  apostolic  zeal.     The  history 
of  their  labors  is  connected  with  the  origin  of  every 
celebrated  town  in  the  annals  of  French  America: 
not  a  cape  was  turned,  nor  a  river  entered,  but  a  Jesuit 
led  the  way. 

Behold,  then,  the  Jesuits  Brebeuf  and  Daniel,  soon 
to  be  followed  by  the  gentler  Lallemand,  and  many 
others  of  their  order,  bowing  meekly  in  obedience  to 
1634.  their  vows,  and  joining  a  party  of  barefoot  Hurons, 
who  were  returning  from  Quebec  to  their  country. 
The  journey,  by  way  of  the  Ottawa  and  the  rivers 
that  interlock  with  it,  was  one  of  more  than  three  hun 
dred  leagues,  through  a  region  horrible  with  forests. 
All  day  long,  the  missionaries  must  wade,  or  handle 
the  oar.  At  night,  there  is  no  food  for  them*but  a 
scanty  measure  of  Indian  corn  mixed  with  water  ; 
their  couch  is  the  earth  or  the  rocks.  At  five-and- 
thirty  waterfalls,  the  canoe  is  to  be  carried  on  the 
shoulders  for  leagues  through  thickest  woods,  or  over 
roughest  regions  ;  fifty  times,  it  was  dragged  by  hand 
through  shallows  and  rapids,  over  sharpest  stones  ;  and 
thus,  swimming,  wading,  paddling,  or  bearing  the  ca- 
noe across  the  portages,  with  garments  torn,  with  feel 


lion,  &c 

}g4> 
&c* 


JESUIT  MISSIONARIES   EXTEND   FRENCH    DOMINION.  123 

mangled,  yet  with  the  breviary  safely  hung  round  the  CHAP. 
neck,  and  vows,  as  they  advanced,  to  meet  death  **~**> 
twenty  times  over,  if  it  were  possible,  for  the  honor  of 
St.  Joseph,  the  consecrated  envoys  made  their  way,  by 
rivers,  lakes,  and  forests,  from  Quebec  to  the  heart  of 
the  Huron  wilderness.  There,  to  the  north-west  of 
Lake  Toronto,  near  the  shore  of  Lake  Iroquois,  which 
is  but  a  bay  of  Lake  Huron,  they  raised  the  first  hum-  Sept* 
ble  house  of  the  Society  of  Jesus  among  the  Hurons — 
the  cradle,  it  was  said,  of  his  church  who  dwelt  at 
Bethlehem,  in  a  cottage.  The  little  chapel,  built  by 
aid  of  the  axe,  and  consecrated  to  St.  Joseph,  where, 
in  the  gaze  of  thronging  crowds,  vespers  and  matins 
began  to  be  chanted,  and  the  sacred  bread  was  conse- 
crated by  solemn  mass,  amazed  the  hereditary  guardi- 
ans of  the  council-fires  of  the  Huron  tribes.  Beautiful 
testimony  to  the  equality  of  the  human  race !  the 
sacred  wafer,  emblem  of  the  divinity  in  man,  all  that 
the  church  offered  to  the  princes  and  nobles  of  the 
European  world,  was  shared  with  the  humblest  of  the 
savage  neophytes.  The  hunter,  as  he  returned  from 
his  wide  roamings,  was  taught  to  hope  for  eternal 
rest ;  the  braves,  as  they  came  from  war,  were  warned 
of  the  wrath  which  kindles  against  sinners  a  never- 
dying  fire,  fiercer  far  than  the  fires  of  the  Mohawks ; 
the  idlers  of  the  Indian  villages  were  told  the  exciting 
tale  of  the  Savior's  death  for  their  redemption.  Two 
new  Christian  villages,  St.  Louis  and  St.  Ignatius, 
bloomed  among  the  Huron  forests.  The  dormant  senti- 
ment of  pious  veneration  was  awakened  in  many  breasts, 
and  there  came  to  be  even  earnest  and  ascetic  devotees 
uttering  prayers  and  vows  in  the  Huron  tongue, — 
while  tawny  skeptics  inquired,  if  there  were  indeed, 
in  the  centre  of  the  earth,  eternal  flames  for  the  unbe- 
lieving. 


124  CHARACTER   OF  JEAN   DE   BREBEUF. 

CHAP.       The   missionaries  themselves  possessed  the  weak- 

nesses  and  the  virtues  of  their  order.  For  fifteen  years 

enduring  the  infinite  labors  and  perils  of  the  Huron  mis- 
sion, and  exhibiting,  as  it  was  said,  "  an  absolute  pattern 
of  every  religious  virtue,"  Jean  de  Brebeuf,  respecting 
even  the  nod  of  his  distant  superiors,  bowed  his  mind 
and  his  judgment  to  obedience.  Besides  the  assiduous 
fatigues  of  his  office,  each  day,  and  sometimes  twice 
in  the  day,  he  applied  to  himself  the  lash ;  beneath  a 
bristling  hair-shirt  he  wore  an  iron  girdle,  armed  on  all 
sides  with  projecting  points  ;  his  fasts  were  frequent; 

fc2eS5.  almost  always  his  pious  vigils  continued  deep  into  the 
night.  In  vain  did  Asmodeus  assume  for  him  the  forms 
of  earthly  beauty  ;  his  eye  rested  benignantly  on  visions 
of  divine  things.  Once,  imparadised  in  a  trance,  he 
beheld  the  Mother  of  Him  whose  cross  he  bore,  sur- 
rounded by  a  crowd  of  virgins,  in  the  beatitudes  of 

1640.  heaven.  Once,  as  he  himself  has  recorded,  while  en- 
gaged in  penance,  he  saw  Christ  unfold  his  arms  to 
embrace  him  with  the  utmost  love,  promising  oblivion 
of  his  sins.  Once,  late  at  night,  while  praying  in  the 
silence,  he  had  a  vision  of  an  infinite  number  of  crosses, 
and,  with  mighty  heart,  he  strove,  again  and  again,  to 
grasp  them  all.  Often  he  saw  the  shapes  of  foul 
fiends,  now  appearing  as  madmen,  now  as  raging 
beasts ;  and  often  he  beheld  the  image  of  Death,  a 
bloodless  form,  by  the  side  of  the  stake,  struggling 
with  bonds,  and,  at  last,  falling,  as  a  harmless  spectre, 

1638.  at  his  feet.  Having  vowed  to  seek  out  suffering  for 
the  greater  glory  of  God,  he  renewed  that  vow  every 
day,  at  the  moment  of  tasting  the  sacred  wafer ;  and, 
as  his  cupidity  for  martyrdom  grew  into  a  passion,  he 
exclaimed,  "  What  shall  I  render  to  thee,  Jesus,  my 
Lord,  for  all  thy  benefits  ?  I  will  accept  thy  cup,  and 


JEAN  DE   BREBEUF  AMONGST  THE   HURONS  126 

invoke  thy  name  ;  "  and,  in  sight  of  the  Eternal  Father  CHAP 
and  the  Holy  Spirit,  of  the  most  holy  Mother  of  Christ  ^-^ 
and  St.  Joseph,  before  angels,  apostles,  and  martyrs, 
before  St.  Ignatius  and  Francis  Xavier,  he  made  a  vow 
never  to  decline  the  opportunity  of  martyrdom,  and 
never  to  receive  the  death-blow  but  with  joy. 

The  life  of  a  missionary  on  Lake  Huron  was  simple 
and  uniform.  The  earliest  hours,  from  four  to  eight, 
were  absorbed  in  private  prayer ;  the  day  was  given 
to  schools,  visits,  instruction  in  the  catechism,  and  a 
service  for  proselytes.  Sometimes,  after  the  manner 
of  St.  Francis  Xavier,  Brebeuf  would  walk  through  the 
village  and  its  environs,  ringing  a  little  bell,  and  invi- 
ting the  Huron  braves  and  counsellors  to  a  conference. 
There,  under  the  shady  forest,  the  most  solemn  mys- 
teries of  the  Catholic  faith  were  subjected  to  discussion. 
It  was  by  such  means  that  the  sentiment  of  piety  was 
unfolded  in  the  breast  of  the  great  warrior  Ahasistari. 
Nature  had  planted  in  his  mind  the  seeds  of  religious 
faith :  "  Before  you  came  to  this  country,"  he  would 
say,  "  when  I  have  incurred  the  greatest  perils,  and 
have  alone  escaped,  I  have  said  to  myself, '  Some  pow- 
erful spirit  has  the  guardianship  of  my  days  ; ' "  and  he 
professed  his  belief  in  Jesus,  as  the  good  genius  and 
protector,  whom  he  had  before  unconsciously  adored. 
After  trials  of  his  sincerity,  he  was  baptized  ;  and,  en- 
listing a  troop  of  converts,  savages  like  himself,  "  Let 
us  strive,"  he  exclaimed,  "  to  make  the  whole  world 
embrace  the  faith  in  Jesus." 

As  missionary  stations  multiplied,  the  central  spot  1639. 
was  called  St.  Mary's,  upon  the  banks  of  the  river 
now  called  Wye.     There,  at  the  humble  house  dedi- 
cated to  the  Virgin,  in  one  year,  three  thousand  guests 


126      COLLEGE  AND  HOSPITAL  FOUNDED  AT  QUEBEC. 

CHAP,  from  the   cabins   of  the   red  man   received  a  fruga, 

— ~  welcome. 

The  news  from  this  Huron  Christendom  awakened 
in  France  the  strongest  sympathy ;  religious  communi- 
ties, in  Paris  and  in  the  provinces,  joined  in  prayers 
for  its  advancement ;  the  king  sent  magnificently 
embroidered  garments  as  presents  to  the  neophytes ; 
the  queen,  the  princesses  of  the  blood,  the  clergy  of 
France,  even  Italy  listened  with  interest  to  the  novel 
tale ;  and  the  pope  himself  expressed  his  favor.  To 
confirm  the  missions,  the  first  measure  was  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  college  in  New  France  ;  and  the  parents 
of  the  marquis  de  Gamache,  pleased  with  his  .pious 
importunity,  assented  to  his  entering  the  order  of  the 
Jesuits,  and  added  from  their  ample  fortunes  the  means 
of  endowing  a  seminary  for  education  at  Quebec.  Its 

1635.  foundation  was  laid,  under  happy  auspices,  in  1635, 
just  before  Champlain  passed  from  among  the  living, 
two  years  before  the  emigration  of  John  Harvard,  and 
one  year  before  the  general  court  of  Massachusetts  had 
made  provision  for  a  college. 

The  fires  of  charity  were  at  the  same  time  kindled. 
The  duchess  d'Aiguillon,  aided  by  her  uncle,  the  Car- 
dinal Richelieu,  endowed  a  public  hospital,  dedicated 
to  the  Son  of  God,  whose  blood  was  shed  in  mercy  for 
all  mankind.  Its  doors  were  open,  not  only  to  the  suf- 
ferers among  the  emigrants,  but  to  the  maimed,  the 
sick,  and  the  blind  of  any  of  the  numerous  tribes  be- 
tween the  Kennebec  and  Lake  Superior ;  it  received 
misfortune  without  asking  its  lineage.  From  the  hos- 
pital nuns  of  Dieppe  three  were  selected,  the  youngest 
but  twenty-two,  the  eldest  but  twenty-nine,  to  brave 
the  famine  and  the  rigors  of  Canada  in  their  patient 
missions  of  benevolence. 


URSULTNE   CONVENT.     SILLERI.    MONTREAL.  127 


The  same  religious  enthusiasm,  inspiring  Madame 
de  la  Peltrie,  a  young  and  opulent  widow  of  Alen9on,  —  ~ 
with  the  aid  of  a  nun  from  Dieppe  and  two  others  from  1639. 
Tours,  established  the  Ursuline  convent  for  the  educa- 
tion of  girls.  As  the  youthful  heroines  stepped  on 
shore  at  Quebec,  they  stooped  to  kiss  the  earth  which 
they  adopted  as  their  country,  and  were  ready,  in  case 
of  need,  to  tinge  with  their  blood.  The  governor, 
with  the  little  garrison,  received  them  at  the  water's 
edge  ;  Hurons  and  Algonquins,  joining  in  the  shouts, 
filled  the  air  with  yells  of  joy  ;  and  the  motley  group 
escorted  the  new  comers  to  the  church,  where,  amidst 
a  general  thanksgiving,  the  Te  Deum  was  chanted. 
Is  it  wonderful  that  the  natives  were  touched  by  a 
benevolence  which  their  poverty  and  squalid  misery 
could  not  appajl  ?  Their  education  was  also  attempted  ; 
and  the  venerable  ash-tree  still  lives,  beneath  which 
Mary  of  the  Incarnation,  so  famed  for  chastened  piety, 
genius,  and  good  judgment,  toiled,  though  in  vain,  for 
the  culture  of  the  Red  Man's  children. 

Meantime,  a  colony  of  Algonquins  had  been   es-  1537 
tablished  in  the  vicinity  of  Quebec  ;  and  the  name 
of  Silleri  is  the  monument  to  the  philanthropy  of  its 
projector.     Here  savages  were  to  be  trained  to  the 
faith  and  the  manners  of  civilization. 

Of  Montreal,  selected  to  be  a  nearer  rendezvous  for 
converted  Indians,  possession  was  taken,  in  1640,  by  a  1640 
solemn  mass,  celebrated  beneath  a  tent.    In  the  follow- 
ing February,  in  France,  at  the  cathedral  of  Our  Lady  1641 
of  Paris,  a  general   supplication  was  made  that  the 
Queen  of  Angels  would  take  the  Island  of  Montreal  un- 
der her  protection.     In  August  of  the  same  year,  in  the 
presence  of  the  French  gathered  from  all  parts  of  Cana- 
da, and  of  the  native  warriors  summoned  from  the  wil- 


128  PROGRESS   OF  THE   JESUIT   MISSIONS. 

CHAP,  derness,  the  festival  of  the  assumption  was  solemnized 
— — ~  on  the  island  itself.     Henceforward,  the  hearth  of  the 
sacred  fires  of  the  Wyandots  was  consecrated  to  the  Vir- 
gin.   "  There  the  Mohawk  and  the  feebler  Algonquin," 
^640™  said  Le  Jeune,  "  shall  make  their  home  ;  the  wolf  shall 
p^ii.   dwell  with  the  lamb,  and  a  little  child  shall  guide  them." 
Yet  the  occupation  of  Montreal  did  not  immediately 
164X  Pr°duce  nearer  relations  with  the  Huron  missionaries, 
1644   wno>  f°r  a  Peri°d  of  three  years,  received  no  supplies 
whatever, — so  that  their  clothes  fell  in  pieces ;  they 
had  no  wine  for  the  chalice  but  the  juices  of  the  wild 
grape,  and  scarce  bread  enough  for  consecration.     Yet 
the  efforts  of  the  Jesuits  were  not  limited  even  to  the 
1634  Huron  race.     Within  thirteen  years,  this  remote  wil- 
to     derness  was  visited  by  forty-two  missionaries,  members 

*  of  the  Society  of  Jesus,  besides  eighteen  others,  who, 
if  not  initiated,  were  yet  chosen  men,  ready  to  shed 
their  blood  for  their  faith.     Twice  or  thrice  a  year, 
they  all  assembled  at  St.  Mary's ;  for  the  rest  of  the 
time,  they  were  scattered  through  the  infidel  tribes. 

I  would  willingly  trace  their  progress,  as  they  grad- 
ually surveyed  the  coast  of  our  republic,  from  the 
waters  of  the  "  Unghiara,"  or,  as  we  write  it,  the 
Niagara,  to  the  head  of  Lake  Superior ;  but  their 
narratives  do  but  incidentally  blend  description  with 
their  details  of  conversions.  Yet  the  map  which  was 
prepared  by  the  order,  at  Paris,  in  1660,  proves  that, 
in  this  earliest  period,  they  had  traced  the  highway 
of  waters  from  Lake  Erie  to  Lake  Superior,  and  had 
gained  a  glimpse,  at  least,  of  Lake  Michigan. 
163 8,  Within  six  years  after  the  recovery  of  Canada,  the 

"1  A.  Q  Q 

*  plan  was  formed  of  establishing  missions,  not  onlv 
RilS£n  among  tne  Algonquins  in  the  north,  but  south  of  Lake 

Huron,  in  Michigan,  and  at  Green  Bay ;  thus  to  gain 


PROGRESS   OF   THE   JESUIT   MISSIONS.  129 

access  to  the  immense  regions  of  the  west  and  the  CHAP. 
north-west,  to  the  great  multitude    from  all   nations,  ^^ 
whom  no  one  can  number ;  but  the  Jesuits  were  too  "SiS*" 
feeble,  and  too  few,  to  attempt  the  spiritual  conquest 
of  so  many  countries  :    they  pray  for  recruits ;    they 
invoke  the  blessing  of  the  Divine   Majesty  on  their 
thoughts  and  enterprises. 

At  the  various  missions,  Indians  from  the  remotest 
points  appeared.  In  1638,  there  came  to -the  Huron  ni&£T 
mission  a  chief  of  the  Huron  tribe  that  dwelt  on  the 
head  waters  of  the  Ohio ;  and  we  find  constant  men- 
tion of  Algonquins  from  the  west,  especially  from 
Green  Bay. 

In  the  autumn  of  1640,  Charles  Raymbault  and 
Claude  Pijart  reached  the  Huron  missions,  destined 
for  service  among  the  Algonquins  of  the  north  and  the 
west.  By  continual  warfare  with  the  Mohawks,  the 
French  had  been  excluded  from  the  navigation  of 
Lake  Ontario,  and  had  never  even  launched  a  canoe 
on  Lake  Erie.  Their  avenue  to  the  west  was  by  way 
of  the  Ottawa  and  French  River ;  so  that  the  whole 
coast  of  Ohio  and  Southern  Michigan  remained  un- 
known, except  as  seen  by  missionaries  from  their  sta- 
tions in  Canada.  In  1640,  Brebeuf  had  been  sent  to 
the  villages  of  the  neutral  nation  which  occupied  the 
territory  on  the  Niagara.  Of  these  some  villages  were 
extended,  on  the  southern  shore  of  Lake  Erie,  beyond 
Buffalo ;  but  it  is  not  certain  that  Brebeuf  visited 
them,  or  that  he  was  at  any  time  on  the  soil  of  our 
republic.  His  mission  perfected  the  knowledge  of  the 
great  watercourse  of  the  valley  of  the  St.  Lawrence. 
"  Could  we  but  gain  the  mastery,"  it  was  said,  "  of  the 
shore  of  Ontario  on  the  side  nearest  the  abode  of  the 
Iroquois,  we  could  ascend  by  the  St.  Lawrence,  with- 

VOL.  III.  17 


130  PROGRESS   OF  THE   JESUIT  MISSIONS. 

CHAP,  out  danger,  and   pass   free   beyond  Niagara,  with  a 
-^^-  great  saving  of  time  and  pains."     Thus  did  Jesuits  see 
*mi°n  the  necessity  of  possessing  a  post  in  Western  New 
York,  seven  years   after   the   restoration  of  Quebec. 
At  this  time,  no  Englishman  had  reached  the  basin  of 
the  St.  Lawrence.     The  country  on  the  sea  was  held 
by  the  Dutch ;  that  part  of  New  York  which  is  watered 
by  streams  that  flow  to  the  St.  Lawrence,  was  first  vis- 
ited exclusively  by  the  French. 

But  the  fixed  hostility  and  the  power  of  the  Five 
Nations  left  no  hope  of  success  in  gaining  safe  inter- 
course by  the  St.  Lawrence.     To  preserve  the  avenue 
to  the  west  by  the  Ottawa,  Pijart  and  Charles  Raym- 
bault,  in  1640,  on  their  pilgrimage  to  the  Huron  coun- 
try, attempted  the  conversion  of  the  roving  tribes  that 
1641.  were  masters  of  the  highways;  and,  in  the  following 
Eehuion  year,  they  roamed  as  missionaries  with  the  Algonquins 
P.  152.   of  Lake  Nipissing. 

P!i53.  Towards  the  close  of  summer,  these  wandering 
tribes  prepared  to  celebrate  "  their  festival  of  the 
dead," — to  gather  up  the  bones  of  their  deceased 
friends,  and  give  them  jointly  an  honorable  sepulchre. 
To  this  ceremony  all  the  confederate  nations  were 

•    f*   A    1  J 

Sept*  invited ;  and,  as  they  approach  the  shore,  on  a  deep 
bay  in  Lake  Iroquois,  their  canoes  advance  in  regular 
array,  and  the  representatives  of  nations  leap  on  shore, 
uttering  exclamations  and  cries  of  joy,  which  the  rocks 
echo.  The  long  cabin  for  the  dead  had  been  pre- 
pared ;  their  bones  are  nicely  disposed  in  coffins  of 
bark,  and  wrapped  in  such  furs  as  the  wealth  of  Eu- 
rope would  have  coveted ;  the  mourning-song  of  the 
war-chiefs  had  been  chanted,  all  night  long,  to  the 
responsive  wails  of  the  women.  The  farewell  to  the 
dead,  the  dances,  the  councils,  the  presents, — all  were 


FATHER  RAYMBAULT   REACHES   SAULT   ST.  MARY.  131 

finished.      But,   before    the    assembly   dispersed,    the  CHAP. 
Jesuits,  by  their  presents  and  their  festivals,  had  won  — X* 
new  affection,  and  an  invitation  was  given  to  visit  the 
nation  of  Chippewas  at  Sault  Ste.  Marie. 

For  the  leader  of  this  first  invasion  of  the  soil  of  our 
republic  in  the  west,  Charles  Raymbault  was  selected  ; 
and,  as  Hurons  were  his  attendants,  Isaac  Jogues  was 
given  him  as  a  companion. 

It  was  on  the  seventeenth  day  of  September,  1641,  1641. 
that  the  birch-bark  canoe,  freighted  with  the  first  en- 
voys from  Christendom,  left  the  Bay  of  Penetangushene 
for  the  Falls  of  St.  Mary.  Passing  to  the  north,  they 
floated  over  a  wonted  track  till  beyond  the  French 
River ;  then  they  passed  onward  over  the  beautifully 
clear  waters  and  between  the  thickly  clustering  archi- 
pelagoes of  Lake  Huron,  beyond  the  Manitoulins  and 
other  isles  along  the  shore,  to  the  straits  that  form  the 
outlet  of  Lake  Superior.  There,  at  the  falls,  after  a 
navigation  of  seventeen  days,  they  found  an  assembly  4. 
of  two  thousand  souls.  They  made  inquiries  respect- 
ing many  nations,  who  had  never  known  Europeans, 
and  had  never  heard  of  the  one  God.  Among  other 
nations,  they  heard  of  the  Nadowessies,  the  famed 
Sioux,  who  dwelt  eighteen  days'  journey  farther  to  the 
west,  beyond  the  Great  Lake,  then  still  without  a 
name — warlike  tribes,  with  fixed  abodes,  cultivators  of 
maize  and  tobacco,  of  an  unknown  race  and  language. 
Thus  did  the  religious  zeal  of  the  French  bear  the 
cross  to  the  banks  of  the  St.  Mary  and  the  confines 
of  Lake  Superior,  and  look  wistfully  towards  the 
homes  of  the  Sioux  in  the  valley  of  the  Mississippi, 
five  years  before  the  New  England  Eliot  had  addressed 
the  tribe  of  Indians  that  dwelt  within  six  miles  of  Bos- 
ton harbor. 


132  DEATH   AND   BURIAL   OF  RAYMBAULT. 

CHAP.      The    chieftains    of    the    Chippewas    invited    the 
s^v^~  Jesuits   to   dwell    among   them,  and  hopes  were  in- 
spired of  a  permanent  mission.     A  council  was  held. 
"We  will  embrace  you,"  said  they,  " as  brothers ;  we 
will  derive  profit  from  your  words." 

After  finishing  this  excursion,  Raymbault  designed 

to  rejoin  the  Algonquins  of  Nipissing,  but  the  climate 

forbade  ;  and  late  in  the  season,  he  returned  to  the  har- 

Reiation  bor  of  the  Huron  missions,  wasting  away  with  consump- 

p-16?-  tion.     In  midsummer  of  the  next  year,  he  descended 

p-271-'  to  Quebec.     After  languishing,  till  October,  the  self- 

Oct    denying   man,  who   had  glowed   with   the    hope    of 

^    bearing  the  gospel  across   the  continent,  through  all 

the  American  Barbary,  even  to  the  ocean  that  divides 

America  from  China,  ceased  to  live ;   and  the  body 

of  this  first  apostle  of  Christianity  to  the   tribes  of 

Michigan  was  buried  in  "the  particular  sepulchre," 

JJg»    which  the  justice  of  that  age  had  "  erected  expressly 

P*27'    to  honor  the  memory  of  the  illustrious  "  Champlain. 

Thus  the  climate  made  one  martyr ; — the  companion 
of  Raymbault  was  destined  to  encounter  a  far  more 
dreaded  foe.  The  war  parties  of  the  Five  Nations, 
hereditary  enemies  of  the  Hurons,  and  the  deadly  op- 
ponents of  the  French,  controlled  the  passes  between 
Upper  Canada  and  Quebec ;  and  each  missionary  on 
his  pilgrimage  was  in  danger  of  captivity.  Such  was 
1642.  the  fate  of  Isaac  Jogues,  who,  having  been  one  of  the 
first  to  carry  the  cross  into  Michigan,  was  now  the 
first  to  bear  it  through  the  villages  of  the  Mohawks. 
From  the  Falls  of  St.  Mary  he  had  repaired  to  the 
ia  Huron  missions,  and  thence,  with  the  escort  of  Ahasis- 
tari  and  other  Huron  braves,  he  descended  by  the 
Ottawa  and  St.  Lawrence  to  Quebec.  On  his  return 
with  a  larger  fleet  of  canoes,  a  band  of  Mohawks, 


FATHER   ISAAC   JOGUES   AMONG    THE   MOHAWKS.  150 

whose  war   parties,  fearlessly  strolling   through    the  CHAP. 
illimitable  forest,  were  ever  ready  to  burst  suddenly  —  — 
upon    their   foes,    lay   in   wait   for   the    pilgrims,    as  1642. 
they  ascended    the  St.  Lawrence.     "  There    can   be  Jus^ 
but  three  canoes  of  them,"  said  Ahasistari,  as,  at  day-    Aug. 
break,  he  examined  their  trail  on  the  shore  :  "  there  is 
nothing  to  fear,"  added  this  bravest  of  the  braves. 
Unhappy  confidence  !     The  Mohawks,.  from  their  am- 
bush, attacked  the  canoes,  as  they  neared  the  land  : 
the  thin  bark  is  perforated  ;    Hurons,  *and   French- 
men, alike  make  for  the  shore,  to  find  security  in  the 
thick  forests.     Jogues  might  have  escaped  also  ;   but 
there  were  with  him  converts,  who  had  not  yet  been 
baptized,  —  and  when  did  a  Jesuit  missionary  seek  to 
save  his  own  life,  at  what  he  believed  the  risk  of  a 
soul  ?    Ahasistari  had  gained  a  hiding-place  :  observing 
Jogues  to  be  a  captive,  he  returned  to  him,  saying, 
"  My  brother,  I  made  oath  to  thee  that  I  would  share 
thy  fortune,  whether  death  or  life  ;  here  am  I  to  keep 
my  vow." 

The  horrible  inflictions  of  savage  cruelty  ensued,  and  Relation 
were  continued  all  the  way  from  the  St.  Lawrence  to 
the  Mohawk.  There  they  arrived  the  evening  before 
the  festival  of  the  assumption  of  the  Virgin  ;  and,  as 
he  ran  the  gantlet,  Jogues  comforted  himself  with  a 
vision  of  the  glory  of  the  queen  of  heaven.  In  a  sec- 
ond and  a  third  village,  the  same  sufferings  were  en- 
countered ;  for  days  and  nights,  he  was  abandoned  to 
hunger  and  every  torment  which  petulant  youth  could 
devise.  But  yet  there  was  consolation  :  an  ear  of  In- 
dian corn  on  the  stalk  was  thrown  to  the  good  father  ; 
and  see  !  to  the  broad  blade  there  clung  little  drops 
of  dew  or  of  water,  enough  to  baptize  two  captive 
neophytes. 


134  JOGUES    AND    BRESSANI   AMONG   THE   MOHAWKS. 

CHAP.      Three  Hurons  were  condemned  to  the  flames.     The 
-^v^Lx  brave  Ahasistari,  having  received  absolution,  met  his 
end  with  the  enthusiasm  of  a  convert  and  the  pride 
of  the  most  gallant  war-chief  of  his  tribe. 

Sad  was  the  fate  of  the  captive  novice,  Rene 
Goupil.  He  had  been  seen  to  make  the  sign  of  the 
1642.  cross  on  an  infant's  brow.  "  He  will  destroy  the  vil- 
la§e  ky  his  charms,"  said  his  master  ;  and,  summoned 
while  reciting,  alternately  with  Jogues,  the  rosary  of 
the  Virgin,  a  blow  with  the  tomahawk  laid  him  lifeless. 
Father  Jogues  had  expected  the  same  fate  ;  but  his 
life  was  spared,  and  his  liberty  enlarged.  On  a  hill 
apart,  he  carved  a  long  cross  on  a  tree,  and  there,  in 
the  solitude,  meditated  the  imitation  of  Christ,  and 
soothed  his  griefs  by  reflecting  that  he  alone,  in  that 
vast  region,  adored  the  true  God  of  earth  and  heaven. 
Roaming  through  the  stately  forests  of  the  Mohawk 
valley,  he  wrote  the  name  of  Jesus  on  the  bark  of 
trees,  graved  the  cross,  and  entered-  into  possession  of 
these  countries  in  the  name  of  God,  —  often  lifting  up 
his  voice  in  a  solitary  chant.  Thus  did  France  bring 
its  banner  and  its  faith  to  the  confines  of  Albany. 
The  missionary  himself  was  humanely  ransomed  from 
captivity  by  the  Dutch,  and,  sailing  for  France,  soon 
returned  to  Canada* 


.Letter 

Similar  was  the  fate  of  Father  Bressani.     Taken 


1644.  prisoner  while  on  his  way  to  the  Hurons  ;  beaten, 
May.  mangled,  mutilated  ;  driven  barefoot  over  rough  paths, 
through  briers  and  thickets  ;  scourged  by  a  whole  vil- 
lage ;  burned,  tortured,  wounded,  and  scarred,  —  he 
was  eye-witness  to  the  fate  of  one  of  his  companions, 
who  was  boiled  and  eaten.  Yet  some  mysterious  awe 
protected  his  life,  and  he,  too,  was,  at  last,  humanely 


Jto*403.  rescued  by  the  Dutch. 


FRENCH  TREATY  OF  PEACE  WITH  THE  FIVE  NATIONS.   135 

Meantime,  to  make  good  the  possession  of  the  CHAP. 
country,  a  treaty  of  peace  is  sought  by  the  French  ^^- 
with  the  Five  Nations,  and  at  Three  Rivers  a  great  1645. 
meeting  is  held.  There  are  the  French  officers  in 
their  magnificence  ;  there  the  five  Iroquois  deputies, 
couched  upon  mats,  bearing  strings  of  wampum.  It 
was  agreed  to  smooth  the  forest-path,  to  calm  the 
river,  to  hide  the  tomahawk.  "  Let  the  clouds  be 
dispersed,"  said  the  Iroquois;  "let  the  sun  shine  on 
all  the  land  between  us."  The  Algonquins  joined  in 
the  peace.  "  Here  is  a  skin  of  a  moose,"  said  Nega- 
bamat,  chief  of  the  Montagnez  ;  "  make  moccasins  for 
the  Mohawk  deputies,  lest  they  wound  their  feet  on 
their  way  home." — "  We  have  thrown  the  hatchet," 
said  the  Mohawks,  "  so  high  into  the  air,  and  beyond 
the  skies,  that  no  arm  on  earth  can  reach  to  bring  it 
down.  The  French  shall  sleep  on  our  softest  blankets, 
by  the  warm  fire,  that  shall  be  kept  blazing  all  the 
night  long.  The  shades  of  our  braves  that  have  fallen 
in  war,  have  gone  so  deep  into  the  earth  that  they 
never  can  be  heard  calling  for  revenge." — "  I  place  a 
stone  on  their  graves,"  said  Pieskaret,  "  that  no  one 
may  move  their  bones." 

With  greater  sincerity,  the  Abenakis  of  Maine, 
touched  by  the  charities  of  Sjlleri,  had  solicited  mis- 
sionaries. Conversion  to  Catholic  Christianity  would 
establish  their  warlike  tribes  as  a  wakeful  barrier  1646. 
against  New  England;  and,  in  August,  1646,  Father 
-  Gabriel  Dreuillettes,  first  of  Europeans,  made  the  long 
and  painful  journey  from  the  St.  Lawrence  to  the 
sources  of  the  Kennebec,  and,  descending  that  stream 
to  its  mouth,  in  a  bark  canoe  continued  his  roamings 
on  the  open  sea  along  the  coast.  The  cross  was  al- 
ready planted  there, — raised  by  the  disciples  of  St. 


Relation 
193. 


136  JESUITS   AND    FRANCISCANS   IN   MAINE. 

CHAP.  Francis  of  Assisi  over  their  humble  lodge  near  the 

^*^~  mouth  of  the  Penobscot.  After  a  short  welcome,  the 
earnest  apostle  returned  to  the  wilderness  ;  and,  a  few 
miles  above  the  mouth  of  the  Kennebec.  the  Indians, 
in  large  numbers,  gathered  about  him,  building  a  rude 
chapel.  In  the  winter,  he  was  their  companion  in 
their  long  excursions  in  quest  of  game.  Who  can  tell 
all  the  hazards  that  were  encountered?  The  sharp 
rocks  in  the  channel  of  the  river  were  full  of  perils  for 
the  frail  canoe  ;  winter  turned  the  solitudes  into  a  wil- 
derness of  snow ;  the  rover,  Christian  or  pagan,  must 
carry  about  with  him  his  house,  his  furniture,  and  his 
food.  But  the  Jesuit  succeeded  in  winning  the  affec- 
tions of  the  savages;  and,  after  a  pilgrimage  of  ten 

1647.  months,  an  escort  of  thirty  conducted  him  to  Quebec, 
15.     full  of  health  and  joy. 

Thus,  in  September,  1646,  within  fourteen  years 
from  the  restoration  of  Quebec,  France,  advancing 
rapidly  towards  a  widely  extended  dominion  in  North 
America,  had  its  outposts  on  the  Kennebec,  and  on 
the  shores  of  Lake  Huron,  and  had  approached  the 
settlements  round  Albany.  The  missionaries,  exalted 
by  zeal,  enjoyed  a  fearless  tranquillity,  and  wrere 
pledged  to  obedience  unto  death. 

The  whole  strength  of  the  colony  lay  in  the  mis- 
sions. The  government  was  weakened  by  the  royal 

1646.  jealousy;  the  population  hardly  increased  ;  there  was 
no  military  force  ;  and  the  trading  company,  deriving 
no  income  but  from  peltries  and  Indian  traffic,  had  no 
motive  to  make  large  expenditures  for  protecting  the 
settlements  or  promoting  colonization.  Thus  the  mis- 
sionaries were  left,  almost  ajone,  to  contend  against 
the  thousands  of  braves  that  roamed  over  Acadia  and 
the  vast  basin  of  the  St.  Lawrence.  But  what  could 


MARTYRDOM   OF  JOGUES   AMONG  THE   MOHAWKS  137 

sixty   or   seventy   devotees    accomplish   amongst   the  CHAP. 

countless  wild  tribes  from  Nova  Scotia  to  Lake  Su- 

perior  ?  They  were  at  war  as  well  with  nature  as 
with  savage  inhumanity,  and  had  to  endure  perils  and 
sufferings  under  every  form.  The  frail  bark  of  the 
Franciscan  Viel  had  been  dashed  in  pieces,  and  the  1623 
missionary  drowned,  as  he  was  shooting  a  rapid,  on 
his  way  from  the  Hurons.  Father  Anne  de  Noue,  in 
the  depth  of  winter,  leaves  Quebec  for  the  mouth  of 
the  Sorel,  to  shrive  the  garrison ;  and,  losing  his  way 
among  pathless  snows,  perishes  by  the  frosts  of  Cana- 
da. No  faithful  Jesuit  would  allow  an  infant  to  die 
unbaptized ;  and  the  Indian  father,  interpreting  the 
sprinkling  as  a  device  to  kill  his  child,  avenged  his 
affections  by  the  death  of  the  missionary.  Still 
greater  was  the  danger  which  sprung  from  the  hostil- 
ity of  the  tribes  towards  the  French,  or  towards  the 
nations  by  whom  their  envoys  were  received. 

A   treaty  of  peace  had,  indeed,  been  ratified,  and,  1645 
for  one  winter,  Algonquin s,  Wyandots,  and  Iroquois, 
joined  in  the  chase.     The  wilderness  seemed  hushed 
into   tranquillity.      Negotiations   also   continued.      In 
May,  1646,  Father  Jogues,  commissioned  as  an  en-  1646 
voy,  was   hospitably  received   by  the   Mohawks,  and  Reiatu>n 
gained   an  opportunity  of  offering    the  friendship  of 
France  to  the  Onondagas.     On  his  return,  his  favora-    J«n« 

27. 

ble  report  raised  a  desire  of  establishing  a  permanent 
mission  among  the  Five  Nations  ;  and  he  himself,  the 
only  one  who  knew  their  dialect,  was  selected  as  its 
founder.     "  760,  et  non  redibo  " — I    shall  go,  but  shall    Oct 
never  return — were  his  words  of  farewell.     Immedi- 
ately on  arriving  at  the  Mohawk  castles,  he  was  re- 
ceived as  a    prisoner,  and,  against  the  voice  of  the 
:ther  nations,  was  condemned  by  the  grand   council     is. 
VOL.  in.  18 


138         WAR  OF  THE   FIVE   NATIONS    AGAINST  THE   HURONS. 

CHAP,  of  the  Mohawks  as  an  enchanter,  who  had  blighted 
-^ —  their  harvest.  Timid  by  nature,  jet  tranquil  from 
zeal,  he  approached  the  cabin  where  the  death-festival 
was  kept,  and,  as  he  entered,  received  the  death  blow. 
His  head  was  hung  upon  the  palisades  of  the  village, 
his  body  thrown  into  the  Mohawk  River. 

This  was  the  signal  for  war.  The  Iroquois  re- 
newed their  invasions  of  the  Huron  country.  In  vain 
104 8.  did  the  French  seek  to  engage  New  England  as  an 
ally  in  the  contest.  The  Huron  nation  was  doomed ; 
the  ancient  clans  of  the  Wyandots  were  to  be  exter- 
minated or  scattered ;  and  the  missionaries  on  the 
river  Wye  shared  the  dangers  of  the  tribes  with 
whom  they  dwelt. 

Relation  Each  sedentary  mission  was  a  special  point  of  at- 
8-17'-  traction  to  the  invader,  and  each,  therefore,  was  liable 
to  the  horrors  of  an  Indian  massacre.  Such  was  the 
fate  of  the  village  of  St.  Joseph.  On  the  morning  of 
July  4,  1648,  when  the  braves  were  absent  on  the 
chase,  and  none  but  women,  children,  and  old  men, 
remained  at  home,  Father  Anthony  Daniel  hears  the 
cry  of  danger  and  confusion.  He  flies  to  the  scene  to 
behold  his  converts,  in  the  apathy  of  terror,  falling 
victims  to  the  fury  of  Mohawks.  No  age,  however 
tender,  excites  mercy ;  no  feebleness  of  sex  wins  com- 
passion. A  group  of  women  and  children  fly  to  him 
to  escape  the  tomahawk, — as  if  his  lips,  uttering  mes- 
sages of  love,  could  pronounce  a  spell  that  would  curb 
the  madness  of  destruction.  Those  who  had  formerly 
scoffed  his  mission,  implore  the  benefit  of  baptism.  He 
bids  them  ask  forgiveness  of  God,  and,  dipping  his 
handkerchief  in  water,  baptizes  the  crowd  of  suppliants 
by  aspersion.  Just  then,  the  palisades  are  forced. 
Should  he  fly  ?  He  first  ran  to  the  wigwams  to 


MARTYRDOM   OF  FATHER  DANIEL.  139 

baptize  the  sick ;  he  next  pronounced  a  general  ab-  CHAP. 
solution  on  all  who  sought  it,  and  then  prepared  to  ^^^ 
resign  his  life  as  a  sacrifice  to  his  vows.  The  wig-  1648. 
warns  are  set  on  fire  ;  the  Mohawks  approach  the 
chapel,  and  the  consecrated  envoy  serenely  advances 
to  meet  them.  Astonishment  seized  the  barbarians. 
At  length,  drawing  near,  they  discharge  at  him  a 
flight  of  arrows.  All  gashed  and  rent  by  wounds,  he 
still  continued  to  speak  with  surprising  energy, — now 
inspiring  fear  of  the  divine  anger,  and  again,  in  gentle 
tones,  yet  of  more  piercing  power  than  the  whoops  of 
the  savages,  breathing  the  affectionate  messages  of 
mercy  and  grace.  Such  were  his  actions  till  he  re- 
ceived a  death-blow  from  a  halbert.  The  victim  to 
the  heroism  of  charity  died,  the  name  of  Jesus  on  his 
lips :  the  wilderness  gave  him  a  grave ;  the  Huron 
nation  were  his  mourners.  By  his  religious  associates 
it  was  believed  that  he  appeared  twice  after  his  death, 
youthfully  radiant  in  the  sweetest  form  of  celestial 
glory ;  that,  as  the  reward  for  his  torments,  a  crowd 
of  souls,  redeemed  from  purgatory,  were  his  honoring 
escort  into  heaven. 

Not  a  year  elapsed,  when,  in  the  dead  of  a  Cana-  1649. 
dian  winter,  a  party  of  a  thousand  Iroquois  fell,  before     16. 
dawn,  upon  the  little  village  of  St.  Ignatius.     It  was 
sufficiently  fortified,   but  only  four   hundred    persons 
were  present,  and  there  were  no  sentinels.     The  pali- 
sades were  set  on  fire,  and  an  indiscriminate  massacro 
of  the  sleeping  inhabitants  followed. 

The  village  of  St.  Louis  was  alarmed,  and  its 
women  and  children  fly  to  the  woods,  while  eighty 
warriors  prepaie  a  defence.  A  breach  is  made  in  the 
palisades;  the  enemy  enter;  and  the  group  of  Indian 
cabins  becomes  a  slaughter-house.  In  this  village 


140  MARTYRDOM   OF    BREBEUF  AND   LALLEMAND. 

CHAP,  resided  Jean  de  Brebeuf,  and  the  younger  and  gen- 
— ~  tier,  yet  not  less  patient,  Gabriel  Lallemand.  The 
character  of  Brebeuf  was  firm  beyond  every  trial ; — 
his  virtue  had  been  nursed  in  the  familiar  sight  of 
death.  Disciplined  by  twenty  years'  service  in  the 
wilderness  work,  he  wept  bitterly  for  the  sufferings 
of  his  converts,  but  for  himself  he  exulted  in  the 
prospect  of  martyrdom.  Both  the  missionaries  might 
have  escaped ;  but  here,  too,  there  were  converts  not 
yet  baptized ;  besides,  the  dying  might,  in  the  hour  of 
agony,  desire  the  ordinances ;  and  both,  therefore,  re- 
main. They  exhort  the  combatants  to  fear  God  :  they 
bend  over  the  dying  to  give  them  baptism,  and  claim 
their  spirits  as  redeemed. 

Success  was  with  the  Mohawks :  the  Jesuit  priests 
are  now  their  prisoners,  to  endure  all  the  tortures 
which  the  ruthless  fury  of  a  raging  multitude  could 
invent.  Brebeuf  was  set  apart  on  a  scaffold,  and,  in 
the  midst  of  every  outrage,  rebuked  his  persecutors, 
and  encouraged  his  Huron  converts.  They  cut  his 
lower  lip  and  his  nose  ;  applied  burning  torches  to  his 
body;  burned  his  gums,  and  thrust  hot  iron  down 
his  throat.  Deprived  of  his  voice,  his  assured  coun- 
tenance and  confiding  eye  still  bore  witness  to  his 
firmness. 

The  delicate  Lallemand  was  stripped  naked,  and 
enveloped  from  head  to  foot  with  bark  full  of  rosin. 
Brought  into  the  presence  of  Brebeuf,  he  exclaimed, 
"We  are  made  a  spectacle  unto  the  world,  and  to 
angels,  and  to  men."  The  pine  bark  was  set  on  fire, 
and,  when  it  was  in  a  blaze,  boiling  water  was  poured 
on  the  heads  of  both  the  missionaries.  The  voice  of 
Lallemand  was  choked  by  the  thick  smoke  ;  but,  the 
fire  having  snapped  his  bonds,  he  lifted  his  hands  to 


HEROIC   PERSEVERANCE   OF   THE   MISSIONARIES.  141 

heaven,  imploring  the  aid  of  Him  who  is  an  aid  to  the  CHAP. 
vveak^     What  need  of  many  words?     Brebeuf  was  -^~ 
scalped  while   yet  alive,  and  died  after  a  torture  of 
three  hours;  the  sufferings  of  Lallemand  were  pro- 
longed for  seventeen  hours.     The  lives  of  both  had 
been  a  continual  heroism  ;  their  deaths  were  the  as- 
tonishment of  their  executioners. 

It  may  be  asked,  if  these  massacres  quenched  en- 
thusiasm. I  answer,  that  the  Jesuits  never  receded 
one  foot  ;  but  as,  in  a  brave  army,  new  troops  press 
forward  to  fill  the  places  of  the  fallen,  there  were 
never  wanting  heroism  and  enterprise  in  behalf  of  the 
cross  and  French  dominion. 

It  was  intended  to  collect  the  scattered  remnants  of  1649. 
the  Hurons  in  the  Grand  Manitoulin  Isle,  which  was 
chosen  to  be  the  centre  of  the  western  missions.    "  We 


shall  be  nearer,"  wrote  Rageneau,  cheeringly,  "  to  the 
Algonquins  of  the  west  ;  "  and,  as  the  way  to  Quebec, 
even  by  the  Ottawa  and  the  St.  Lawrence,  was  no 
longer  safe,  it  was  thought  that,  through  the  remote  ibid.  93, 
wilderness,  some  safe  avenue  might  yet  be  opened. 
But  the  Hurons,  destined  to  be  scattered  through  the 
widest  regions,  hovered,  for  a  season,  round  the  isles 
that  were  nearest  the  graves  of  their  ancestors  ;  and 
the  mission  on  the  Grand  Manitoulin  was  abandoned. 
But  the  great  point  of  desire  was  the  conversion 
of  the  Five  Nations  themselves.  Undismayed  by 
barbarism,  or  the  martyrdom  of  their  brethren,  the 
missionaries  were  -still  eager  to  gain  admission;  but 
the  Mohawks,  and  the  other  tribes,  having  now, 
through  commerce  with  the  Dutch,  learned  the  use  of 
fire-arms,  seemed  resolved  on  asserting  their  power  in 
every  direction,  —  not  only  over  the  barbarians  of  the 
north,  the  west,  and  the  south-west,  but  over  the 


142  LE   MOYNE   RENEWS   THE   MOHAWK  MISSION. 

CHAP.  French  themselves.     They  bade  defiance  to  forts  and 

.A.  .A.. 

" entrenchments ;  their  war  parties  triumphed  at  Three 

1651.  Rivers,  were  too  powerful  for  the  palisades  of  Silleri, 
and  proudly  passed  by  the  walls  of  Quebec.  The 
Ottawas  were  driven  from  their  old  abodes  to  the 
forests  in  the  Bay  of  Saginaw.  No  frightful  solitude 
in  the  wilderness,  no  impenetrable  recess  in  the  frozen 
north,  was  safe  against  the  passions  of  the  Five  Na- 
tions. Their  chiefs,  animated  not  by  cruelty  only,  but 
by  pride,  were  resolved  that  no  nook  should  escape  their 
invasions  ;  that  no  nation  should  rule  but  themselves  ; 
and,  as  their  warriors  strolled  by  Three  Rivers  and 
Quebec,  they  killed  the  governor  of  the  one  settlement, 

1653.  and  carried  off  a  priest  from  the  other. 

At  length,  satisfied  with  the  display  of  their  power, 
they  themselves  desired  rest.  Besides,  of  the  scattered 
Hurons,  many  had  sought  refuge  among  their  oppress- 
ors, and,  according  to  an  Indian  custom,  had  been 
incorporated  with  the  tribes  of  the  Five  Nations.  Of 
these,  some  retained  affection  for  the  French.  When 

1654.  peace  was  concluded,  and  Father  Le  Moyne  appeared 
as  envoy  among  the  Onondagas  to  ratify  the  treaty,  he 
found  there  a  multitude  of  Hurons,  who,  like  the  Jews 
at  Babylon,  retained  their  faith  in  a  land  of  strangers. 
The  hope  was  renewed  of  winning  the  whole  west 
and  north  to  Christendom. 

The  villages  bordering  on  the  settlements  of  the 
Dutch,  were  indifferent  to  the  peace  ;  the  western 
tribes,  who  could  more  easily  traffic  with  the  French, 
.654.  adhered  to  it  firmly.  At  last,  the  Mohawks  also  grew 
weary  of  the  strife  ;  and  Le  Moyne,  selecting  the  banks 
of  their  river  for  his  abode,  resolved  to  persevere,  in 
the  vain  hope  of.  infusing  into  their  savage  nature  the 
gentler  spirit  of  civilization. 


MISSION   TO   THE   ONONDAGAS  143 


The   Onondagas   were    more    sincere  ;    and  when 
Chaumonot,  a  native  of  France,  long  a  missionary        ~* 
among    the  Hurons,  left  Quebec   for  their  territory,  1655' 
he  was  accompanied  by  Claude  Dablon,  a  missionary,  journal 
who  had  recently  arrived  from  France.     They  were  Dablon 
hospitably  welcomed  at  Oriondaga,  the  principal  vil-     £v* 
lage  of  the  tribe.     A  general  convention  was  held,  by 
their  desire  ;  and,  before  the  multitudinous  assembly     ^  ' 
of  the  chiefs  and  the  whole  people,  gathered  under  the 
open  sky,  among  the   primeval  forests,  the  presents 
were  delivered  ;    and  the  Italian  Jesuit,  with  much 
gesture,  after  the  Italian  manner,  discoursed  so  elo- 
quently to  the  crowd,  that  it  seemed  to  Dablon  as  if 
the  word  of  God  had  been  preached  to  all  the  nations 
of  that  land.     On  the  next  day,  the  chiefs  and  others     16. 
crowded  round  the  Jesuits,  with  their  songs  of  wel- 
come.    "  Happy  land  !  "  they  sang  ;  "  happy  land  !  in 
which  the  French  are  to  dwell  ;  "  and  the  chief  led 
the  chorus,  "  Glad  tidings  !  glad  tidings  !  it  is  well  that 
we  have  spoken  together  ;  it  is  well  that  wre  have  a 
heavenly  message."     At  once,  a  chapel  sprung  into     18. 
existence,  and,  by  the  zeal  of  the  natives,  was  finished 
in  a  day.     "  For  marbles  and  precious  metals,"  writes 
Dablon,  "  we  employed  only  bark  ;   but  the  path  to 
heaven  is  as  open  through  a  roof  of  bark  as  through 
arched  ceilings   of  silver  and  gold."      The    savages 
showed  themselves  susceptible  of  the  excitements  of 
religious  ecstasy;  and  there,  in  the  heart  of  New  York, 
the    solemn   services   of    the    Roman    church    were 
chanted  as  securely  as  in  any  part  of  Christendom. 
The  charter  of  the  hundred  associates  included  the 
basin  of  every  tributary  of  the  St.  Lawrence.     The 
Onondagas  dwelt  exclusively  on  the  Oswego  and  its 
tributary  waters  :  their  land  was,  therefore,  a  part  ot 


144  INFLUENCE   OF   FRANCE    IN   NEW  YORK. 

CHAP,  the  empire  of  France.     The  cross  and  the  lily,  em- 
^~  blems  of  France  and  Christianity,  were  now  known  in 
the  basin  of  the  Oswego. 

The  success  of  the  mission  encouraged  Dablon  to 

invite  a  French  colony  into  the  land  of  the  Onondagas  ; 

and,  though  the  attempt  excited  the  jealousy  of  the 

Mohawks,  whose  war  chiefs,  in  their  hunt  after  Huron 

fugitives,  still  roamed  even  to  the  Isle  of  Orleans,  a 

l?5(L*  company  of  fifty  Frenchmen  embarked  for  Onondaga. 

Diffuse  harangues,  dances,  songs,  and  feastings,  were 

•^fy    their  welcome  from  the  Indians.     In  a  general  convo- 

Jul     cation  of  the  tribe,  the  question  of  adopting  Christian- 

^     ity  as  its  religion  was  debated  ;    and  sanguine  hope 

already  included  the  land  of  the  Onondagas  as  a  part 

of  Christendom.     The  chapel,  too  small  for  the  throng 

of  worshippers  that  assembled  to  the  sound  of  its  little 

bell,  was  enlarged.     The  Cayugas  also  desired  a  mis- 

sionary, and  they  received  the  fearless  Rene  Mesnard. 

In  their  village,  a  chapel  was  erected,  with  mats  for  the 

tapestry  ;  and  there  the  pictures  of  the  Savior  and  of 

uwdTin  the  Virgin  mother  were  unfolded  to  the  admiring  chil- 

165£Jf  dren  of  the  wilderness.     The  Oneidas  also  listened  to 

p.  158. 

1657.  the  missionary  ;  and,  early  in  1657,  Chaumonot  reached 
if^ii'  tne  more  fertile  and  more  densely  peopled  land  of  the 
Senecas.  The  influence  of  France  was  planted  in 
the  beautiful  valleys  of  Western  New  York.  The 
Jesuit  priests  published  their  faith  from  the  Mohawk 
to  the  Genesee,  Onondaga  remaining  the  central 
station. 

But  the  savage  nature  of  the  tribes  was  unchanged. 
At  this  very  time,  a  ruthless  war  of  extermination  was 
waged  against  the  nation  of  Erie,  and  in  the  north  ot 


e  crowded  hamlet  became  a  scene  of  carnage. 
Prisoners,  too,  were  brought   home  to   the  villages, 


THE    FRENCH   AND   FIVE   NATIONS  AGAIN   AT  WAR.  145 

and  delivered  to   the  flames ; — and  what  could   the  CHAP. 
Jesuits  expect  of  nations  who  could  burn  even   chil-  - — *- 
dren  with  refinements  of  tortures  ?     "  Our  lives,"  said 
Mesnard,  "  are  not  safe."     In  Quebec,  and  in  France, 
men   trembled    for  the    missionaries.     They    pressed 
upon  the  steps  of  their  countrymen,   who  had  been 
boiled   and  roasted ;    they   made  their   home  among 
cannibals ;  hunger,  thirst,  nakedness,  were  to  be  en- 
countered ;  nature  itself  offered  trials ;  and  the   first 
colony  of  the  French,  making  its  home  near  the  Lake 
of  Onondaga,  and  encountering  the  forest  with  the 
axe,  suffered  from   fever    before    they  could    prepare 
their   tenements.      Border   collisions   also   continued 
The    Oneidas   murdered   three   Frenchmen,  and  the 
French  retaliated  by  seizing  Iroquois.     At  last,  when  1657. 
a  conspiracy  was  framed  in  the  tribe  of  the  Ononda- 
gas,  the  French,  having  vainly  solicited  reinforcements,  1658. 
abandoned  their  chapel,  their  cabins,  and  their  hearths,     19. 
and  the  valley  of  the  Oswego.     The  Mohawks  com- 
pelled Le  Moyne  to  return;  and  the  French  and  the  1659! 
Five  Nations  were  once  more  at  war.     Such  was  the 
issue  of  the  most  successful  attempt  at  French  coloni- 
zation in  New  York.     The  Dutch  of  New  Amsterdam 
were  to  give  way  to  the  English ;  and  the  union  of 
the   English   colonies   was   a   guaranty   that  France 
could  never  regain  the  mastery. 

Meantime,  the  Jesuits  reached  our  country  in  the  far 
west.  In  August,  1654,  two  young  fur  traders,  smitten  Aug.' 
with  the  love  of  adventure,  joined  a  band  of  the  Otta- 
was,  or  other  Algonquins,  and,  in  their  little  gondolas 
of  bark,  ventured  on  a  voyage  of  five  hundred  leagues. 
After  two  years,  they  reappeared,  accompanied  by 
a  fleet  of  fifty  canoes,  urged  forward  by  five  hundred  * 
arms.  The  natives  ascend  the  cliff  of  St.  Louis,  wel- 
VOL.  in,  19 


146       PIONEERS   OF  FRENCH   COMMERCE   IN   THE   FAR   WEST. 

CHAP,  corned  by  a  salute  from  the  ordnance  of  the  castle. 
-~^  They  describe  the  vast  lakes  of  the  west,  and  the  nu- 
merous tribes  that  hover  round  them ;  they  speak  of 
the  Knisteneaux,  whose  homes  stretched  away  to  the 
Northern  Sea ;  of  the  powerful  Sioux,  who  dwelt  be- 
yond Lake  Superior;  and  they  demand  commerce 
with  the  French,  and  missionaries  for  the  boundless 
west; 

The  request  was  eagerly  granted ;  and  Gabriel 
Dreuillettes,  the  same  who  carried  the  cross  through 
the  forests  of  Maine,  and  Leonard  Gareau,  of  old  a 
missionary  among  the  Hurons,  were  selected  as  the 
first  religious  envoys  to  a  land  of  sacrifices,  shadows, 
and  deaths.  The  canoes  are  launched ;  the  tawny 
mariners  embark ;  the  oars  flash,  and  sounds  of  joy 
and  triumph  mingle  with  the  last  adieus.  But,  just 
below  Montreal,  a  band  of  Mohawks,  enemies  to  the 
Ottawas,  awaited  the  convoy ;  in  the  affray,  Gareau 
was  mortally  wounded,  and  the  fleet  dispersed. 

The  remote  nations,  by  the  necessity  of  the  case, 
still  sought  alliance  with  the  French.  The  Mohawks, 
and  their  confederates,  receiving  European  arms  from 
Albany,  exterminated  the  Eries,  and  approached  the 
Miamis  and  the  Illinois.  The  western  Indians  desired 
commerce  with  the  French,  that  they  might  gain 
means  to  resist  the  Iroquois  ;  and,  as  furs  were  a  bun- 
Si  dant  there,  the  traders  pressed  forward  to  Green  Bay. 
1659.  Two  of  them  dared  to  pass  the  winter  of  1659  on 
the  banks  of  Lake  Superior.  Enriched  with  knowl- 
edge of  the  western  world,  in  the  summer  of  1660, 
they  came  down  to  Quebec,  with  an  escort  of  sixty 
canoes,  rowed  by  three  hundred  Algonquins,  and  laden 
with  peltry. 

If  the  Five  Nations  can  penetrate  these  remote  re 


RENE   MESNARD  LOST  AMONG  THE   CHIPPEWAS.  147 


gions,  to  satiate  their  passion  for  blood  ;  if  mercantile 
enterprise  can  bring  furs  from  the  plains  of  the  Sioux  ;  —  —  v^ 
why  cannot  the  cross  be  borne  to  their  cabins,  and  the  166°- 
name  of  the  king  of  France  be  pronounced  in  their 
councils  ?  The  zeal  of  Francis  de  Laval,  the  bishop 
of  Quebec,  kindled  with  a  desire  himself  to  enter  on 
the  mission  ;  but  the  lot  fell  to  Rene  Mesnard.  He 
was  charged  to  visit  Green  Bay  and  Lake  Superior, 
and,  on  a  convenient  inlet,  to  establish  a  residence  as 
the  common  place  of  assembly  for  the  surrounding  na- 
tions. His  departure  was  immediate,  and  with  few 
preparations  ;  for  he  trusted  —  such  are  his  words  —  "  in 
the  Providence  which  feeds  the  little  birds  of  the  des- 


ert,  and  clothes  the  wild  flowers  of  the  forests."  Ev- 
ery personal  motive  seemed  to  retain  him  at  Quebec  ; 
but  "  powerful  instincts  "  impelled  him  to  the  enter- 
prise. Obedient  to  his  vows,  the  aged  man  entered  Aug. 
on  the  path  that  was  red  with  the  blood  of  his  prede- 
cessors, and  made  haste  to  scatter  the  seeds  of  truth 
through  the  wilderness,  even  though  the  sower  cast 
his  seed  in  weeping.  "  In  three  or  four  months,"  he 
wrote  to  a  friend,  "  you  may  add  me  to  the  memento 
of  deaths."  In  October,  he  reached  the  bay  which  he 
called  St.  Theresa,  and  which  may  have  been  the  Bay 
of  Keweena,  on  the  south  shore  of  Lake  Superior. 
After  a  residence  of  eight  months,  he  yielded  to  the 
invitation  of  Hurons  who  had  taken  refuge  in  the  Isle  1661. 
of  St.  Michael  ;  and,  bidding  farewell  to  his  neophytes 
and  the  French,  and  to  those  whom  he  never  more 
should  meet  on  earth,  he  departed,  with  one  attendant, 
for  the  Bay  of  Che-goi-me-gon.  The  accounts  would 
indicate  that  he  took  the  route  by  way  of  Keweena 
Lake  and  Portage.  There,  while  his  attendant  was 

•  Auff 

employed  in  the  labor  of  transporting  the  canoe,  Mes-     20. 


I  4.8  FRANCE  PROTECTS  ITS  COLONY 

CHAP,  nard  was  lost  in  the  forest,  and  was  never  again  seen. 

Long  afterwards,  his  cassock  and  his  breviary  were 

kept  as  amulets  among  the  Sioux. 

1660.  Meantime,  the  colony  of  New  France  was  too  feeble 
to  defend  itself  against  the  dangerous  fickleness  and 
increasing  confidence  of  the  Iroquois  :  the  very  harvest 
could  not  be  gathered  in  safety;  the  convents  were 
insecure ;  many  prepared  to  return  to  France  ;  in  mo- 
ments of  gloom,  it  seemed  as  if  all  must  be  abandoned. 

1661.  True,  religious  zeal  was  still  active.     Le  Moyne  once 
more  appeared  among  the  Five  Nations,  and  was  re- 
ceived with  affection  at  Onondaga.     The  deputies  of 
the  Senecas,  the  Cayugas,  and  the  Onondagas,  assem- 

12;  bled  to  the  sound  of  the  bell  that  had  belonged  to  the 
chapel  of  the  Jesuits ;  and  the  resolve  of  the  council 
was,  peace.  But  he  could  influence  only  the  upper 
nations.  The  Mohawks  would  not  be  appeased; 

1662.  Montreal   was   not   safe — one  ecclesiastic  was  killed 
near  its  gates ;  a  new  organization  of  the  colony  was 
needed,  or  it  would  come  to  an  end. 

1663.  The  company  of  the  hundred  associates  resolved, 
14."    therefore,  to  resign  the  colony  to  the  king ;  and  imme- 
diately, under  the  auspices  of  Colbert,  it  was  conceded 
to  the  new  company  of  the  West  Indies. 

A  powerful  appeal  was  made,  in  favor  of  Canada,  to 
the  king ;  the  company  of  Jesuits  publicly  invited  him 
to  assume  its  defence,  and  become  their  champion 
against  the  Iroquois.  After  various  efforts  at  fit  ap- 
pointments, the  year  1665  saw  the  colony  of  New 
France  protected  by  a  royal  regiment,  with  the  aged 
but  indefatigable  Tracy  as  general ;  with  Courcelles, 
a  veteran  soldier,  as  governor ;  and  with  Talon,  a  man 
of  business  and  of  integrity,  as  intendant  and  repre- 
sentative of  the  king  in  civil  affairs.  Every  omen  was 


NEW   JESUIT   MISSION   TO  THE   WEST.  149 

favorable,  save  the  conquest  of  New  Netherlands  by  CHAF. 
the  English.  That  conquest  eventually  made  the  - — *- 
Five  Nations  a  dependence  on  the  English  world ; 
and  if,  for  twenty-five  years,  England  and  France 
sued  for  their  friendship,  with  uncertain  success,  yet, 
afterwards,  in  the  grand  division  between  parties 
throughout  the  world,  the  Bourbons  found  in  them 
implacable  opponents.  How  wonderful  are  the  de- 
crees of  Providence !  The  Europeans,  in  their  strug- 
gle against  legitimacy  and  for  freedom,  having  come 
all  the  way  into  the  wilderness,  pursued  the  contest 
even  there,  making  of  the  Iroquois  allies,  and  of  their 
hunting-fields  battle-grounds. 

With  better  hopes, — undismayed  by  the  sad  fate  of 
Gareau  and  Mesnard, — indifferent  to  hunger,  naked- 
ness, and  cold,  to  the  wreck  of  the  ships  of  bark,  and 
to  fatigues  and  weariness,  by  night  and  by  day, — in 
August,  1665,  Father  Claude  Alloiiez  embarked  on  a  1665 
mission,  by  way  of  the  Ottawa,  to  the  far  west.  Early 
in  September,  he  reached  the  rapids,  through  which 
the  waters  of  the  upper  lakes  rush  to  the  Huron,  and 
admired  the  beautiful  river,  with  its  woody  isles  and 
inviting  bays.  On  the  second  of  that  month,  he 
entered  the  lake  which  the  savages  reverenced  as  a 
divinity,  and  of  which  the  entrance  presents  a  spec- 
tacle of  magnificence  rarely  excelled  in  the  rugged 
scenery  of  the  north.  He  passed  the  lofty  ridge  of 
naked  sand,  which  stretches  along  the  shore  its  stu- 
pendous piles  of  drifting  barrenness ;  he  sailed  by  the 
cliffs  of  pictured  sandstone,  which,  for  twelve  miles, 
rise  three  hundred  feet  in  height,  fretted  by  the  vio- 
lence of  the  chafing  waves  into  arches  and  bastions, 
caverns  and  towering  walls,  heaps  of  prostrate  ruins, 
and  erect  columns  crowned  with  fantastic  entabla 


150  FATHER  ALLOUEZ   AMONG  THE   CHIPPEWAS. 

CHAP,  tures.     Landing  on  the  south  shore,  he  said  mass, — 
—^ — •  thus  consecrating  the  forests,  which  he  claimed  for  a 

Alloiiez,    /->»i     •      .  i   . 

journal,  Christian  king. 

37.  t  O 

Sailing  beyond  the  Bay  of  St.  Theresa,  and  having 
vainly  sought  for  a  mass  of  pure  copper,  of  which  he 

Oct.  i.  had  heard  rumors,  on  the  first  day  of  October  he  ar- 
rived at  the  great  village  of  the  Chippewas,  in  the 
Bay  of  Che-goi-me-gon.  It  was  at  a  moment  when 
the  young  warriors  were  bent  on  a  strife  with  the 
warlike  Sioux.  A  grand  council  of  ten  or  twelve 

Relation  neighboring  nations  was  held  to  wrest  the  hatchet 
e.iV.'  from  the  hands  of  the  rash  braves;  and  Alloiiez  was 
admitted  to  an  audience  before  the  vast  assembly.  In 
the  name  of  Louis  XIV.  and  his  viceroy,  he  com- 
manded peace,  and  offered  commerce  and  an  alliance 
against  the  Iroquois :  the  soldiers  of  France  would 
smooth  the  path  between  the  Chippewas  and  Que- 
bec ;  would  brush  the  pirate  canoes  from  the  rivers ; 
would  leave  to  the  Five  Nations  no  choice  but  between 
tranquillity  and  destruction.  On  the  shore  of  the  ba}7, 

1665  to  which  the  abundant  fisheries  attracted  crowds,  a 
chapel  soon  rose,  and  the  mission  of  the  Holy  Spirit 
was  founded.  There  admiring  throngs,  who  had  never 
seen  a  European,  came  to  gaze  on  the  white  man,  and 
on  the  pictures  which  he  displayed  of  the  realms  of 
hell  and  of  the  last  judgment ;  there  a  choir  of  Chip- 
pewas were  taught  to  chant  the  pater  and  the  ave. 
During  his  long  sojourn,  he  lighted  the  torch  of  faith 
for  more  than  twenty  different  nations.  The  dwellers 
round  the  Sault,  a  band  of  "  the  Outehibouec,"  as  the 
Jesuits  called  the  Chippewas,  pitched  their  tents  near 
his  cabin  for  a  month,  and  received  his  instructions. 
The  scattered  Hurons  and  Ottawas,  that  roamed  the 
deserts  north  of  Lake  Superior,  appealed  to  his  com- 


MANY   TRIBES   THRONG  ROUND  THE   MISSION.  J51 

passion,  and,  before  his  return,  obtained  his  presence  CHAP. 
in  their  morasses.  From  the  unexplored  recesses  of  — -X- 
Lake  Michigan  came  the  Potawatomies  ;  and  these 
worshippers  of  the  sun  invited  him  to  their  homes. 
The  Sacs  and  Foxes  travelled  on  foot  from  their  coun- 
try, which  abounded  in  deer,  and  beaver,  and  buffalo. 
The  Illinois,  also, — a  hospitable  race,  unaccustomed  to 
canoes,  having  no  weapon  but  the  bow  and  arrow,- - 
came  to  rehearse  their  sorrows.  Their  ancient  glory 
and  their  numbers  had  been  diminished  by  the  Sioux, 
on  the  one  side,  and  the  Iroquois,  armed  with  mus- 
kets, on  the  other.  Curiosity  was  roused  by  their  talc 
of  the  noble  river  on  which  they  dwelt,  and  which 
flowed  towards  the  south.  "  They  had  no  forests,  but,  leep,  ?, 

IUo,  o. 

instead  of  them,  vast  prairies,  where  herds  of  deer  and 
buffalo,  and  other  animals,  grazed  on  the  tall  grasses." 
They  explained,  also,  the  wonders  of  their  peace-pipe,  ionics 
and  declared  it  their  custom  to  welcome  the  friendly 
stranger  with  shouts  of  joy.     "  Their  country,"  said 
Alloiiez,  "  is  the  best  field  for  the  gospel.     Had  1  had 
leisure,  I  would  have  gone  to  their  dwellings,  to  see 
with  my  own  eyes  all  the  good  that  was  told  me  of    'no,* 
them." 

Then,  too,  at  the  very  extremity  of  the  lake,  the 
missionary  met  the  wild,  impassive  warriors  of  the 
Sioux,  who  dwelt  to  the  west  of  Lake  Superior,  in  a 
land  of  prairies,  with  wild  rice  for  food,  and  skins  of 
beasts,  instead  of  bark,  for  roofs  to  thejr  cabins,  on  the 
banks  of  the  Great  River,  of  which  Alloiiez  reported  ntt 
the  name  to  be  "  Messipi." 

After  residing  for  nearly  two  years  chiefly  on  the 
southern  margin  of  Lake  Superior,  and  connecting  his 
name  imperishably  with  the  progress  of  discovery  in 
the  west,  Alloiiez  returned  to  Quebec  to  urge  the  Aug. 


129. 


152  FRENCH   MISSIONARIES. 

CHAP,  establishment  of  permanent  missions,  to  be  aecompa- 
-  ~  nied  bj  little  colonies  of  French  emigrants  ;  —  and  such 
was  his  own  fervor,  such  the  earnestness  with  which 
ne  was  seconded,  that,  in  two  days,  with  another 
priest,  Louis  Nicolas,  for  his  companion,  he  was  on  his 
way,  returning  to  the  mission  at  Chegoimegon. 
16C8.  The  prevalence  of  peace  favored  the  progress  of 
French  dominion  ;  the  company  of  the  West  Indies, 
resigning  its  monopoly  of  the  fur  trade,  gave  an  im- 
pulse to  Canadian  enterprise  ;  a  recruit  of  missiona- 
ries had  arrived  from  France  ;  and  Claude  Dablon  and 
James  Marquette  repaired  to  the  Chippewas  at  the 
Sault,  to  establish  the  mission  of  St.  Mary.  It  is  the 
oldest  settlement  begun  by  Europeans  within  the  pres- 
ent limits  of  the  commonwealth  of  Michigan. 

For  the  succeeding  years,  the  illustrious  triumvirate, 
Allouez,  Dablon,  and  Marquette,  were  employed  in 
confirming  the  influence  of  France  in  the  vast  regions 
that  extend  from  Green  Bay  to.  the  head  of  Lake  Su- 
perior, —  mingling  happiness  with  suffering,  and  win- 
ning enduring  glory:  by  their  fearless  perseverance. 
For  to  what  inclemencies,  from  nature  and  from  man, 
was  each  missionary  among  the  barbarians  exposed! 
He  defies  the  severity  of  climate,  wading  through 
water  or  through  snows,  without  the  comfort  of  fire  ; 
having  no  bread  but  pounded  maize,  and  often  no  food 
but  the  unwholesome  moss  from  the  rocks  ;  laboring 
incessantly;  exposed  to  live,  as  it  were,  without  nour- 
ishment, to  sleep  without  a  resting-place,  to  travel 
far,  and  always  incurring  perils,  —  to  carry  his  life  in 
his  hand,  or  rather  daily,  and  oftener  than  every  day, 
to  hold  it  up  as  a  target,  expecting  captivity,  death 
from  the  tomahawk,  tortures,  fire.  And  yet  the  sim- 
plicity and  the  freedom  of  life  in  the  wilderness  had 


MISSIONARY   LIFE.     MARQUETTE.    TALON.  153 

their  charms.    The  heart  of  the  missionary  would  swell  CHAP. 

A.  A.. 

with  delight,  as,  under  a  serene  skj,  and  with  a  mild 

temperature,  and  breathing  a  pure  air,  he  moved  over 
waters  as  transparent  as  the  most  limpid  fountain, 
Ever}7  encampment  offered  his  attendants  the  pleas- 
ures of  the  chase.  Like  a  patriarch,  he  dwelt  beneath 
a  tent ;  and  of  the  land  through  which  he  walked,  he 
was  its  master,  in  the  length  of  it  and  in  the  breadth 
of  it,  profiting  by  its  productions,  without  the  embar- 
rassment of  ownership.  How  often  was  the  pillow 
q£  stones  like  that  where  Jacob  felt  the  presence  of 
God !  How  often  did  the  ancient  oak,  of  which  the 
centuries  were  untold,  seem  like  the  tree  of  Mamre, 
beneath  which  Abraham  broke  bread  with  angels  ! 
Each  day  gave  the  pilgrim  a  new  site  for  his  dwelling, 
which  the  industry  of  a  few  moments  would  erect,  and 
for  which  nature  provided  a  floor  of  green  inlaid  with 
flowers.  On  every  side  clustered  beauties,  which  art 
had  not  spoiled,  and  could  not  imitate. 

The  purpose  of  discovering  the  Mississippi,  of  which  1669- 
the  tales  of  the  natives  had  published  the  magnificence,  I^TO! 
sprung  from  Marquette  himself.     He  had  resolved  on  Ibld-53- 
attempting  it,  in  the  autumn  of  1669;  and,  when  de- 
lay intervened,  from   the  necessity  of  employing  him-     ^ 
self  at  Che-goi-me-gon,  which  Allouez  had  exchanged 
for  a  new  mission  at  Green  Bay,  he  selected  a  young 
Illinois  as  a  companion,  by  whose  instructions  he  be-  1670.' 
,came  familiar  with  the  dialect  of  that  tribe. 

Continued  commerce  with  the  French  gave  protec-  1670. 
tion  to  the  Algonquins  of  the  west,  and  confirmed 
their  attachment.  A  political  interest  grew  up,  and 
extended  to  Colbert  and  the  ministry  of  Louis  XIV. 
It  became  the  fixed  purpose  of  Talon,  the  intendant 
of  the  colony,  to  spread  the  power  of  France  to  the 
VOL.  in.  20 


154  CONGRESS    OF   INDIAN   NATIONS   AT    ST.   MARY*S. 

CHAP,  utmost  borders  of  Canada,  and  even  to  the  south  sea. 

^v^L  To  this  end,  as  soon  as  he  disembarked  at  Quebec,  he 
made  choice  of  St.  Lusson  to  hold  a  congress  at  the 
Falls  of  St.  Mary.  The  invitation  was  sent  by  Nicolas 
Perrot  in  every  direction  for  more  than  a  hundred 
leagues  round  about ;  and  fourteen  nations,  among 
them  Sacs,  Foxes,  and  Miamis,  agreed  to  be  present 
loy  their  ambassadors. 

1671.  The  fourth  of  June,  1671,  the  day  appointed  for 
the  congress  of  nations,  arrived ;  and,  with  Alloiiez  as 
his  interpreter,  St.  Lusson,  fresh  from  an  excursion  to 
Southern  Canada, — that  is,  the  borders  of  the  Kenne- 
bec,  where  English  habitations  were  already  sown 
broadcast  along  the  coast, — appeared  at  the  Falls  of 
St.  Mary  as  the  delegate  of  Talon.  There  are  assem- 
bled the  envoys  of  the  wild  republicans  of  the  wilder- 
ness, and  brilliantly-clad  officers  from  the  veteran  ar- 
mies of  France.  It  was  formally  announced  to  the 
natives,  gathered,  as  they  were,  from  the  head-springs 
of  the  St.  Lawrence,  the  Mississippi,  and  the  Red 
River,  that  they  were  placed  under  the  protection  of 
the  French  king.  A  cross  of  cedar  was  raised  ;  and, 
amidst  the  groves  of  maple  and  pine,  of  elm  and  hem- 
lock, that  are  strangely  intermingled  on  the  beautiful 
banks  of  the  St.  Mary,  where  the  bounding  river  lashes 
its  waters  into  snowy  whiteness,  as  they  hurry  past  the 
dark  evergreen  of  the  tufted  islands  in  the  channel, — 
the  whole  company  of  the  French,  bowing  before  the 
emblem  of  man's  redemption,  chanted  to  its  glory  a 
hymn  of  the  seventh  century :  — 

"Vexilla  Regis  prodeunt; 

Fulget  crucis  mysterium." 
The  banners  of  heaven's  King  advance ; 
The  mystery  of  the  cross  shines  forth. 


JESUITS   IN   MICHIGAN,  WISCONSIN,  ILLINOIS.    JOLIET.          155 

By  the  si<ie  of  the  cross  a  cedar  column  was  planted,  CHAP. 
and  marked  with  the  lilies  of  the  Bourbons.     Thus  ^^- 
were  the  authority  and  the  faith  of  France  uplifted, 
in  the  presence  of  the  ancient  races  of  America,  in  the 
heart  of  our  continent.     Yet  this  daring  ambition  of 
the  servants  of  a  military  monarch  was   doomed  to 
leave  no  abiding  monument, — this  echo  of  the  middle 
ago  to  die  away. 

In  the  same  year,  Marquette  gathered  the  wander-  1671, 
ing  remains  of  one  branch  of  the  Huron  nation  round 
a  chapel  at  Point  St.  Ignace,  on  the  continent  north  of 
the  peninsula  of  Michigan.  The  climate  was  repul- 
sive ;  but  fish  abounded,  at  all  seasons,  in  the  strait ; 
and  the  establishment  was  long  maintained  as  the  key 
to  the  west,  and  the  convenient  rendezvous  of  the  re- 
mote Algonquins.  Here,  also,  Marquette  once  more 
gained  a  place  among  the  founders  of  Michigan. 

The  countries  south  of  the  village  founded  by  Mar-  1672, 
quette  were  explored  by  Alloiiez  and  Dablon,  who 
bore  the  cross  through  Eastern  Wisconsin  and  the 
north  of  Illinois,  visiting  the  Mascoutins  and  the  Kick- 
apoos  on  the  Milwauke,  and  the  Miamis  at  the  head 
of  Lake  Michigan.  The  young  men  of  the  latter  tribe 
were  intent  on  an  excursion  against  the  Sioux,  and 
they  prayed  to  the  missionaries  to  give"  them  the  vic- 
tory. After  finishing  the  circuit,  Alloiiez,  fearless  of 
danger,  extended  his  rambles  to  the  cabins  of  the  Foxes 
on  the  river  which  bears  their  name. 

The  long-expected  discovery  of  the  Mississippi  was  1673. 
at  hand,  to  be  accomplished  by  Joliet,  of  Quebec,  of 
whom  there  is  no  record,  but  of  this  one  excursion, 
that  gives  him  immortality,  and  by  Marquette,  who, 
after  years  of  pious  assiduity  to  the  poor  wrecks  of 
Hurons,  whom  he  planted,  near  abundant  fisheries,  on 


156     MARQUETTE  AND   JOLIET  APPROACH   THE   GREAT  RIVER 

CHAP,  the  cold   extremity  of  Michigan,  entered,  with  equal 
humility,  upon  a  career  which  exposed  his  life  to  per- 
petual danger,  and,  by  its  results,  affected  the  destiny 
of  nations. 

The  enterprise  projected  by  Marquette  had  been 
favored  by  Talon,  the  intendant  of  New  France,  who, 
on  the  point  of  quitting  Canada,  wished  to  signalize 
the  last  period  of  his  stay  by  ascertaining  if  the  French, 
descending  the  great  river  of  the  central  west,  could 
bear  the  banner  of  France  to  the  Pacific,  or  plant  it, 
side  by  side  with  that  of  Spain,  on  the  Gulf  oi 
Mexico. 
Mar-  A  branch  of  the  Potawatomies,  familiar  with  Mar 

quette, 

quette  as  a  missionary,  heard  with  wonder  the  daring 
proposal.  "  Those  distant  nations,"  said  they,  "  never 
spare  the  strangers :  their  mutual  wars  fill  their  bor- 

Eng.  ed.      r 

1696.  jgj-g  with  bands  of  warriors ;  the  Great  River  abounds 
in  monsters,  which  devour  both  men  and  canoes ;  the 
excessive  heats  occasion  death." — "  I  shall  gladly  lay 
down  my  life  for  the  salvation  of  souls,"  replied  the 
good  father;  and  the  docile  nation  joined  him  in 
prayer. 

1673.  At  the  last  village  on  Fox  River  ever  visited  by  the 
French, — where  Kickapoos,  Mascoutins,  and  Miamis 
dwelt  together  on  a  beautiful  hill  in  the  centre  of  prairies 
and  magnificent  groves,  that  extended  as  far  as  the  eye 
could  reach,  and  where  Allouez  had  already  raised  the 
cross,  which  the  savages  had  ornamented  with  brilliant 
skins  and  crimson  belts,  a  thank-offering  to  the  Great 
Manitou, — the  ancients  assembled  in  council  to  receive 
the  pilgrims.  "  My  companion,"  said  Marquette,  "  is 
an  envoy  of  France  to  discover  new  countries ;  and  1 
am  ambassador  from  God  to  enlighten  them  with  the 
gospel ;  "  and,  offering  presents,  he  begged  two  guides 


DISCOVERY    OF    THE    MISSISSIPPI.  157 

for  the  morrow.  The  wild  men  answered  courteously,  CHAP 
and  gave  in  return  a  mat,  to  serve  as  a  couch  during  ^^ 
the  long  voyage.  1C73 

Behold,  then,  in  1673,  on  the  tenth  day  of  June, 
the  meek,  single-hearted,  unpretending,  illustrious 
Marquette,  with  Joliet  for  his  chieftain,  five  French- 
men as  his  companions,  and  two  Algonquins  as  guides, 
lifting  their  two  canoes  on  their  backs,  and  walking 
across  the  narrow  portage  that  divides  the  Fox  River 
from  the  Wisconsin.  They  reach  the  water-shed ; — 
uttering  a  special  prayer  to  the  immaculate  Virgin, 
they  leave  the  streams  that,  flowing  onwards,  could 
have  borne  their  greetings  to  the  castle  of  Quebec  ;— 
already  they  stand  by  the  Wisconsin.  "The  guides 
returned,"  says  the  gentle  Marquette,  "leaving  us 
alone,  in  this  unknown  land,  m  the  hands  of  Provi- 
dence." France  and  Christianity  stood  in  the  valley 
of  the  Mississippi.  Embarking  on  the  broad  Wiscon- 
sin, the  discoverers,  as  they  sailed  west,  went  solitarily 
down  the  stream,  between  alternate  prairies  and  hill- 
sides, beholding  neither  man  nor  the  wonted  beasts  of 
the  forest :  no  sound  broke  the  appalling  silence,  but 
the  ripple  of  their  canoe,  and  the  lowing  of  the  buffalo. 
In  seven  days,  "they  entered  happily  the  Great  River, 
with  a  joy  that  could  not  be  expressed ; "  and  the  two 
birch-bark  canoes,  raising  their  happy  sails  under  new 
skies  and  to  unknown  breezes,  floated  down  the  calm 
magnificence  of  the  ocean  stream,  over  the  broad, 
clear  sand-bars,  the  resort  of  innumerable  waterfowl, — 
gliding  past  islets  that  swelled  from  the  bosom  of  the 
stream,  with  their  tufts  of  massive  thickets,  and  be- 
tween the  wide  plains  of  Illinois  and  Iowa,  all  gai- 
landed  with  majestic  forests,  or  checkered  by  island 
groves  and  the  open  vastness  of  the  prairie. 


158  THE    JESUITS    THE    FIRST    WHITE    MEN    IN    IOWA 

CHAP       About  sixty  leagues  below  the  mouth  of  the  Wis- 
^-v-^  consin,  the  western  bank  of  the  Mississippi  bore  on  its 
1673  sands  the  trail  of  men;  a  little  footpath  was  discerned 
25.     leading  into  a  beautiful  prairie ;  and,  leaving  the  ca- 
noes, Joliet  and  Marquette  resolved  alone  to  brave  a 
meeting  with  the  savages.     After  walking  six  miles, 
they  beheld  a  village  on  the  banks  of  a  river,  and  two 
others  on  a  slope,  at  a  distance  of  a  mile  and  a  half 
queued  from  the  first.     The  river  was  the  Mou-in-gou-e-na, 
com-    or  Moingona,  of  which  we  have  corrupted  the  name 
into  Des  Moines.     Marquette   and  Joliet  were   the 
first   white  men  who  trod  the  soil  of  Iowa.      Com- 
mending  themselves  to  God,  they  uttered  a  loud  cry. 
The   Indians  hear ;    four  old  men  advance  slowly  to 
meet  them,  bearing  the  peace-pipe  brilliant  with  many 
colored  plumes.     "We  are  Illinois,"  said  they, — that 
is,  when  translated,  "We  are  men;"  and  they  offered 
the  calumet.     An   aged    chief  received   them   at   his 
cabin  with  upraised  hands,  exclaiming,  "How  beauti- 
ful is  the  sun,  Frenchman,  when  thou  comest  to  visit 
us !    Our  whole  village  awaits  thee  ;    thou  shalt  enter 
in  peace  into  all  our  dwellings."     And  the  pilgrims 
were  followed  by  the  devouring  gaze  of  an  astonished 
crowd. 

At  the  great  council,  Marquette  published  to  them 
the  one  true  God,  their  Creator.  He  spoke,  also,  of 
the  great  captain  of  the  French,  the  governor  of  Cana- 
da, who  had  chastised  the  Five  Nations  and  com- 
manded peace ;  and  he  questioned  them  respecting 
the  Mississippi  and  the  tribes  that  possessed  its  banks. 
For  the  messengers,  who  announced  the  subjection  of 
the  Iroquois,  a  magnificent  festival  was  prepared  of 
hominy,  and  fish,  and  the  choicest  viands  from  the 
prairies. 


VOYAGE    DOWN    THE    RIVER.  159 

After  six  days'  delay,  and  invitations  to  new  visits,  CHAP. 
the  chieftain  of  the  tribe,  with  hundreds  of  warriors,  ^-^L 
attended  the  strangers  to  their  canoes;  and,  selecting  1673. 
a  peace-pipe  embellished  with  the  head  and  neck  of 
brilliant  birds,  and  all  feathered  over  with  plumage  of 
various  hues,  they  hung  round  Marquette  the  mysteri- 
ous arbiter  of  peace  and  war,  the  sacred  calumet,  a 
safeguard  among  the  nations 

The  little  group  proceeded  onwards.  "I  did  not  1678 
fear  death,"  says  Marquette ;  "  I  should  have  esteemed 
it  the  greatest  happiness  to  have  died  for  the  glory  of 
God."  They  passed  the  perpendicular  rocks,  which 
wore  the  appearance  of  monsters;  they  heard  at  a 
distance  the  noise  of  the  waters  of  the  Missouri,  known 
to  them  by  its  Algonquin  name  of  Pekitanoni;  and, 
when  they  came  to  the  most  beautiful  confluence  of 
rivers  in  the  world, — where  the  swifter  Missouri 
rushes  like  a  conqueror  into  the  calmer  Mississippi, 
dragging  it,  as  it  were,  hastily  to  the  sea, — the  good 
Marquette  resolved  in  his  heart,  anticipating  Lewis 
and  Clarke,  one  day  to  ascend  the  mighty  river  to  its 
source ;  to  cross  the  ridge  that  divides  the  oceans,  and, 
descending  a  westerly  flowing  stream,  to  publish  the 
gospel  to  all  the  people  of  this  New  World. 

In  a  little  less  than  forty  leagues,  the  canoes  floated 
past  the  Ohio,  which  was  then,  and  long  afterwards, 
called  the  Wabash.  Its  banks  were  tenanted  by  nu- 
merous villages  of  the  peaceful  Shawnees,  who  quailed 
under  the  incursions  of  the  Iroquois. 

The  thick  canes  begin  to  appear  so  close  and  strong, 
that  the  buffalo  could  not  break  through  them ;  the  in- 
sects become  intolerable ;  as  a  shelter  against  the  suns 
of  July,  the  sails  are  folded  into  an  awning.  The 
prairies  vanish ;  and  forests  of  whitewood,  admirable 


160  THE    ARKANSAS.      LIMIT    OF   THE    VOYAGE. 

CHAP,  for  their  vastness  and  height,  crowd  even  to  the  skirts 

XX. 

- — -  of  the  pebbly  shore.     It  is  also  observed  that,  in  the 
1673.  land  of  the  Chickasas,  the  Indians  have  guns. 

Near  the  latitude  of  33  degrees,  on  the  western 
bank  of  the  Mississippi,  stood  the  village  of  Mitchiga- 
tnea,  in  a  region  that  had  not  been  visited  by  Europe- 
ans since  the  days  of  De  Soto.  "  Now,"  thought  Mar- 
quette,  "we  must,  indeed,  ask  the  aid  of  the  Virgin." 
Armed  with  bows  and  arrows,  with  clubs,  axes,  and 
bucklers,  amidst  continual  whoops,  the  natives,  bent 
on  war,  embark  in  vast  canoes  made  out  of  the  trunks 
of  hollow  trees;  but,  at  the  sight  of  the  mysterious 
peace-pipe  held  aloft,  God  touched  the  hearts  of  the 
old  men,  who  checked  the  impetuosity  of  the  young , 
and,  throwing  their  bows  and  quivers  into  the  canoes,  as 
a  token  of  peace,  they  prepared  a  hospitable  welcome. 

The  next  day,  a  long,  wooden  canoe,  containing  ten 
men,  escorted  the  discoverers,  for  eight  or  ten  leagues, 
to  the  village  of  Akansea,  the  limit  of  their  voyage 
They  had  left  the  region  of  the  Algonquins,  and,  in  the 
midst  of  the  Sioux  and  Chickasas,  could  speak  only 
by  an  interpreter.  A  half  league  above  Akansea,  they 
were  met  by  two  boats,  in  one  of  which  stood  the 
commander,  holding  in  his  hand  the  peace-pipe,  and 
singing  as  he  drew  near.  After  offering  the  pipe,  he 
gave  bread  of  maize.  The  wealth  of  his  tribe  con- 
sisted in  buffalo  skins ;  their  weapons  were  axes  of 
steel, — a  proof  of 'commerce  with  Europeans. 

Thus  had  our  travellers  descended  below  the  en- 
trance of  the  Arkansas,  to  the  genial  climes  that  have 
almost  no  winter  but  rains,  beyond  the  bound  of  the 
Huron  and  Algonquin  languages,  to  the  vicinity  of  tne 
Gulf  of  Mexico,  and  to  tribes  of  Indians  that  had  ob- 
tained European  arms  by  traffic  with  Spaniards  or 
with  Virginia 


THE    ILLINOIS.       DEATH    OF    MARQUETTE.  161 

So,  having  ascertained  that  the  Father  of  Bivers  went  CHAP. 
not  to  the  ocean  east  of  Florida,  nor  yet  to  the  Gulf  of  —  v^- 
California,  on  the  seventeenth  of  July  Marquette  and  1673> 
Joliet  left  Akansea  and  ascended  the  Mississippi. 

At  the  38th  degree  of  latitude,  they  entered  the 
River  Illinois,  and  discovered  a  country  without  its 
paragon  for  fertile  prairies.  The  tribe  of  the  Illinois 
entreated  Marquette  to  come  back  and  reside  among 
them.  One  of  their  chiefs,  with  their  young  men, 
conducted  the  party  to  Chicago  ;  and  before  the  end 
of  September,  the  explorers  were  safe  in  Green  Bay. 

Joliet  returned  to  Quebec  to  announce  the  dis- 
covery, of  which  the  fame,  through  Talon,  fired  the 
ambition  of  Colbert.     In  1675  Marquette,  who  had  1675- 
been  delayed  by  his  failing  health  for  more  than  a    edelon 

J  J  .  Dablon. 

year,  rejoined  the  Illmois  on   their   river.     Assem-  Cojm^are 
bling  the  whole  tribe,  whose  chiefs  and  men  were 


reckoned  at  two  thousand,  he  raised  before   them  eS£eS 

Catholic 

pictures  of  the  Virgin  Mary,  spoke  to  them  of  one 
who  had  died  on  the  cross  for  all  men,  and  built  an 
altar  and  said  mass  in  their  presence  on  the  prairie. 
Again  celebrating  the  mystery  of  the  eucharist,  on 
Easter  Sunday  he  took  possession  of  the  land  in  the 
name  of  Jesus  Christ,  and,  to  the  universal  joy  of  the 
multitude,  founded  the  mission  of  the  Immaculate 
Conception.  This  work  accomplished,  he  journeyed 
by  way  of  Chicago  to  Mackinaw  ;  but  foreknowing  his 
death,  he  entered  a  little  river  in  Michigan  to  breathe 
his  last.  Exposed  upon  the  shore,  like  Francis 
Xavier,  whom  he  loved  to  imitate,  he  repeated  in 
solitude  all  his  acts  of  devotion  of  the  preceding  days. 
Then,  having  called  his  companions  and  given  them 
absolution,  he  begged  them  once  more  to  leave  him 
alone.  When,  after  a  little  while,  they  went  to  seek 
him,  they  found  him  passing  gently  away  near  the 
stream  that  bears  his  name.  On  its  highest  bank  the  ca- 


(62  ROBERT    CAVALIER   DE    LA  SALLfi. 

CHAP,  noemen  dug  his  grave  in  the  sand.     Ever  after,  the 

XX. 


forest  rangers,  if  in  danger  on  Lake  Michigan,  would 
invoke  his  name.  The  people  of  the  west  will  build 
his  monument. 

At  the  death  of  Marquette,  there  dwelt  at  the  outlet 
of  Lake  Ontario,  Robert  Cavalier  de  la  Salle.  Of  a 
good  family,  he  had  renounced  his  inheritance  by  en- 
tering the  seminary  of  the  Jesuits.  After  profiting  by 
the  discipline  of  their  schools,  and  obtaining  their 
praise  for  purity  and  diligence,  he  had  taken  his  dis- 
charge from  the  fraternity ;  and,  with  no  companions 
but  poverty  and  a  boundless  spirit  of  enterprise,  about 
the  year  1667,  when  the  attention  of  all  France  was 
directed  towards  Canada,  the  young  adventurer  em- 
barked for  fame  and  fortune  in  New  France.  Estab- 
lished, at  first,  as  a  fur-trader,  at  La  Chine,  and 
encouraged  by  Talon  and  Courcelles,  he  explored 

1669.  Lake  Ontario,  and  ascended  to  Lake  Erie;  and,  when 
the  French  governor,  some  years  after  occupying  the 
banks  of  the  Sorel,  began  to  fortify  the  outlet  of  Lake 

1675.  Ontario,  La  Salle,  repairing  to  France,  and  aided  by 
Frontenac,  obtained  the  rank  of  nobility,  and  the  grant 
of  Fort  Frontenac,  now  the  village  of  Kingston,  on 
condition  of  maintaining  the  fortress.  The  grant  was, 
hi  fact,  a  concession  of  a  large  domain  and  the  exclu- 
sive traffic  with  the  Five  Nations. 

1675        In  the  portion  of  the  wilderness  of  which  the  young 

1677.  man  was  proprietary,  cultivated  fields  proved  the  fer- 
tility of  the  soil ;  his  herd  of  cattle  multiplied ;  groups 
of  Iroquois  built  their  cabins  in  the  environs;  a  few 
French  settled  under  his  shelter;  Franciscans,  now 
tolerated  in  Canada,  renewed  their  missions  under  his 
auspices; — the  noble  forests  invited  the  construction 
of  log  cabins,  and  vessels  with  decks ;  and  no  canoe- 


LA    SALLE'S    PROJECTS    FAVORED   BY    COLBERT.  liJ3 

men  in  Canada  could  shoot  a  rapid  with  such  address  CHAP. 

XX 

as  the  pupils  of  La  Salle.  Fortune  was  within  his  ~^v— 
grasp.  But  Joliet,  as  he  descended  from  the  upper 
lakes,  had  passed  by  the  bastions  of  Fort  Frontenac — 
had  spread  the  news  of  the  brilliant  career  of  discov-  Hennc^ 
eries  opened  in  the  west.  In  the  solitudes  of  Upper  C- 
Canada,  the  secluded  adventurer  had  inflamed  his  im~  voyage, 
agination  by  reading  the  voyages  of  Columbus,  and  the 
history  of  the  rambles  of  De  Soto;  and  the  Iroquois  had, 
moreover,  described  the  course  of  the  Ohio.  Thus  the 
young  enthusiast  framed  plans  of  colonization  in  the 
south-west,  and  of  commerce  between  Europe  and  the 
Mississippi.  Once  more  he  repaired  to  France;  and 
from  the  policy  of  Colbert,  who  instinctively  listened 
to  the  vast  schemes  which  his  heroic  sagacity  had 
planned,  and  the  special  favor  of  Seignelay,  Colbert's 
son,  he  obtained,  with  the  monopoly  of  the  traffic  in 
buffalo  skins,  a  commission  for  perfecting  the  discovery 
of  the  Great  River.  With  Tonti,  an  Italian  veteran,  as  I67g. 
his  lieutenant,  and  a  recruit  of  mechanics  and  mari- 
ners; with  anchors,  and  sails,  and  cordage  for  rigging 
a  ship,  and  stores  of  merchandise  for  traffic  with  the 
natives;  with  swelling  hopes,  and  a  boundless  ambi- 
tion, La  Salle,  in  the  autumn  of  1678,  returned  to 
Fort  Frontenac.  Before  winter,  "a  wooden  canoe" 
of  ten  tons,  the  first  that  ever  sailed  into  Niagara  Riv- 
er, bore  a  part  of  his  company  to  the  vicinity  of  the 
falls ;  at  Niagara,  a  trading-house  was  established ;  in 
the  mouth  of  the  Cayuga  Creek,  the  work  of  ship- 
building began ;  Tonti  and  the  Franciscan  Hennepin, 
venturing  among  the  Senecas,  established  relations  oi 
amity, — while  La  Salle  himself,  skilled  in  the  Indian 
dialects,  was  now  urging  forward  the  ship-builders, 
now  gathering  furs  at  his  magazine,  now  gazing  at  the 


164  THE  MRST  VESSEL  ON  LAKE  ERIK. 

CHAP,  mighty    cataract, — fittest    emblem    of  eternity, — DOW 

-  sending  forward  a  detachment  into  the  country  of  the 

1679.  Illinois  to  prepare  the  way  for  his  reception. 

Under  the  auspices  of  La  Salle,  Europeans  first 
pitched  a  tent  at  Niagara;  it  was  he  who,  in  1679, 
amidst  the  salvo  from  his  little  artillery,  and  the  chant- 
ing of  the  Te  Deum,  and  the  astonished  gaze  of  the 
Senecas,  first  launched  a  wooden  vessel,  a  bark  of  sixty 
tons,  on  the  upper  Niagara  River,  and,  in  the  Griffin, 
freighted  with  the  colony  of  fur- traders  for  the  valley 
of  the  Mississippi,  on  the  seventh  day  of  August,  un- 
furled  a  sail  to  the  breezes  of  Lake  Erie.  Indiffer- 
ent to  the  malignity  of  those  who  envied  his  genius,  or 
were  injured  by  his  special  privileges,  La  Salle,  first 
of  mariners,  sailed  over  Lake  Erie  and  between  the 
verdant  isles  of  the  majestic  Detroit;  debated  planting 
a  colony  on  its  banks ;  gave  a  name  to  Lake  St.  Clair, 
from  the  day  on  which  he  traversed  its  shallow  waters ; 
and,  after  escaping  from  storms  on  Lake  Huron,  and 
planting  a  trading-house  at  Mackinaw,  he  cast  anchor 
in  Green  Bay.  Here  having  despatched  his  brig  to 
Niagara  River,  with  the  richest  cargo  of  furs,  he  him- 
self, with  his  company  in  scattered  groups,  repaired  in 
bark  canoes  to  the  head  of  Lake  Michigan ;  and  at 
the  mouth  of  the  St.  Joseph's,  in  that  peninsula  where 
Alloiiez  had  already  gathered  a  village  of  Miamis, 
awaiting  che  return  of  the  Griffin,  he  constructed  the 
trading-house,  with  palisades,  known  as  the  Fort  of 
the  Miamis.  It  marks  his  careful  forethought,  that  he 
sounded  the  mouth  of  the  St.  Joseph's,  and  raised  buoys 
to  mark  the  channel.  But  of  his  vessel,  on  which  his 
fortunes  so  much  depended,  no  tidings  came.  Weary 
Dec, a  of  delay,  he  resolved  to  penetrate  Illinois;  and,  leaving 
ten  men  to  guard  the  Fort  of  the  Miamis,  La  Salle 


THE    ST.  JOSEPH'S.      LA   SAL-LE'S    PARTY    IN    ILLINOIS.  165 

himself,  with  Hennepin  and    two  other  Franciscans,  CHAP. 
with  Tonti  and  about  thirty  followers,  ascended  the  — ^ 
St.  Joseph's,  and,   bj  a  short  portage  over  bogs  and  1679. 
swamps    made    dangerous  by  a  snow-storm,  entered 
the  Kankakee.     Descending  its  narrow  stream,  before 
the  end  of  December,  the  little  company  had  reached 
the  site  of  an  Indian  village  on  the  Illinois,  probably 
not  far  from  Ottawa,  in  La  Salie  county.     The  tribe 
was  absent,  passing  the  winter  in  the  chase. 

On  the  banks  of  Lake  Peoria,  Indians  appeared; —  168Q. 
they  were  Illinois ;  and,  desirous  to  obtain  axes  and 
fire-arms,  they  offered  the  calumet,  and  agreed  to  an 
alliance :  if  the  Iroquois  should  renew  their  invasions, 
they  would  claim  the  French  as  allies.  They  heard 
with  joy  that  colonies  were  to  be  established  in  their 
territory;  they  described  the  course  of  the  Mississippi, 
and  they  were  willing  to  guide  the  strangers  to  its 
mouth.  The  spirit  and  prudence  of  La  Salle,  who 
was  the  life  of  the  enterprise,  won  the  friendship  of 
the  natives.  But  clouds  lowered  over  his  path :  the 
Griffin,  it  seemed  certain,  was  wrecked,  thus  delay- 
ing his  discoveries,  as  well  as  impairing  his  fortunes; 
his  men  began  to  despond :  alone,  of  himself,  he 
toiled  to  revive  their  courage ; — there  could  be  no 
safety  but  in  union:  "None,"  he  added,  "shall  stay 
after  the  spring,  unless  from  choice."  But  fear  and 
discontent  pervaded  the  company ;  and  when  La  Salle 
planned  and  began  to  build  a  fort  on  the  banks  of  the 
Illinois,  four  days'  journey,  it  is  said,  below  Lake  Peo- 
ria, thwarted  by  destiny,  and  almost  despairing,  he 
named  the  fort  Crevecoeur. 

Yet  here  the  immense  power  of  his  will  appeared. 
Dependent   on   himself,    fifteen   hundred    miles   from 


166        HENNEPIN  AT  THE  FALLS  OF  ST.  \NTHONY. 

CHAP,  the  nearest  French  settlement,  impoverished,  pursued 

by  enemies  at  Quebec,   and  in   the  wilderness   sur- 

1680.  rounded  by  uncertain  nations,  he  inspired  his  men 
with  resolution  to  saw  trees  into  plank  and  prepare  a 
bark;  he  despatched  Louis  Hennepin  to  explore  the 
Upper  Mississippi ;  he  questioned  the  Illinois  and  their 
southern  captives  on  the  course  of  the  Mississippi ;  he 
[SSiS!  f°rmed  conjectures  respecting  the  Tennessee  River; 
and  then,  as  new  recruits  were  needed,  and  sails  and 
cordage  for  the  bark,  in  the  month  of  March,  with  a 
musket  and  a  pouch  of  powder  and  shot,  with  a  blanket 
for  his  protection,  and  skins  of  which  to  make  moc- 

Ae  pub- 

Tonrti?f  casins,  he,  with  three  companions,  set  off  on  foot  for 
1680  Fort  Frontenac,  to  trudge  through  thickets  and  for- 
ests, to  wade  through  marshes  and  melting  snows, 
having  for  his  pathway  the  ridge  of  highlands  which 
divide  the  basin  of  the  Ohio  from  that  of  the  lakes, — 
without  drink,  except  water  from  the  brooks, — without 
food,  except  supplies  from  the  gun.  Of  his  thoughts, 
on  that  long  journey,  no  record  exists. 

During  the  absence  of  La  Salle,  Louis  Hennepin, 
bearing  the  calumet,  and  accompanied  by  Du  Gay 
and  Michael  d'Accault,  as  oarsmen,  followed  the 
Illinois  to  its  junction  with  the  Mississippi;  and,  in- 
voking the  guidance  of  St.  Anthony  of  Padua,  ascended 
the  mighty  stream  far  beyond  the  mouth  of  the  Wiscon- 
sin— as  he  falsely  held  forth,  far  enough  to  discover  its 
source.  The  great  falls  in  the  river,  which  he  describes 
with  reasonable  accuracy,  were  named  from  the  chosen 
patron  of  the  expedition.  On  a  tree  near  the  cataract, 
the  Franciscan  engraved  the  cross,  and  the  arms  of 
France ;  and,  after  a  summer's  rambles,  diversified  by 


TONTI    DESERTS    ROCK    FORT    IN    ILLINOIS,    1680.  167 

a  short  captivity  among  the  Sioux,  he  and  his  ccmpan  CHAP 
ions  returned,  by  way  of  the  Wisconsin  and  FDX  Riv  ~~^~ 
ers,  to  the  French  mission  at  Green  Bay.  1680. 

In   Illinois,  Tonti  was  less    fortunate.     The  quick 
perception  of  La  Salle  had  selected,  as  the  fit  centre 
of  his  colony,  Rock  Fort,  near  a  village  of  the  Illinois  ^^ 
— a  cliff  rising  two  hundred  feet  above  the  river  that  Scrafl,3 

380 

flows  at  its  base,  in  the  centre  of  a  lovely  country  of 
verdant  prairies,  bordered  by  distant  slopes,  richly 
tufted  with  oak,  and  black  walnut,  and  the  noblest 
trees  of  the  American  forest.  This  rock  Tonti  was  to 
fortify ;  and,  during  the  attempt,  men  at  Crevecoeur  de- 
serted. Besides,  the  enemies  of  La  Salle  had  instiga- 
ted the  Iroquois  to  hostility,  and,  in  September,  a  large 
party  of  them,  descending  the  river,  threatened  ruin  to 
his  enterprise.  After  a  parley,  Tonti  and  the  few  men 
that  remained  with  him,  excepting  the  aged  Franciscan 
Gabriel  de  la  Ribourde,  fled  to  Lake  Michigan,  where 
they  found  shelter  with  the  Potawatomies.  On  the 
authority  of  a  legend  made  up  in  Paris  from  the  ad- 
ventures of  Tonti, — a  legend  full  of  geographical  con- 
tradictions, of  confused  dates,  and  manifest  fiction, — 
some  have  placed  this  attack  of  the  Iroquois  on  the 
Illinois  in  1681.  The  narrative  of  Hennepin,  the 
whole  of  which  was  printed  in  1682,  proves  conclu- 
sively that  it  happened  in  1680,  as  Frontenac,  the 
governor  of  Canada,  related  at  the  time. 

When,  therefore,  La  Salle  returned  to  Illinois,  with 
large  supplies  of  men  and  stores  for  rigging  a  brigan- 
tine,  he  found  the  post  in  Illinois  deserted.  Hence  1681. 
came  the  delay  of  another  year,  which  was  occupied 
in  visiting  Green  Bay,  and  conducting  traffic  there ;  in 
finding  Tonti  and  his  men,  and  perfecting  a  capacious 
barge.  At  last,  in  the  early  part  of  1682,  La  Sallt 


168  LA   SALLE    DESCENDS    THE    MISSISSIPPI. 

CHAP,  and^  his  company  descended  the  Mississippi  to  the  sea 
—  ^-  His  sagacious  eye  discerned  the  magnificent  resources 
J682.  Of  tne  country.  As  he  floated  down  its  flood;  as  he 
framed  a  cabin  on  the  first  Chickasa  bluff;  as  he 
raised  the  cross  by  the  Arkansas  ;  as  he  planted  the 
arms  of  France  near  the  Gulf  of  Mexico;  —  he  antici- 
pated the  future  affluence  of  emigrants,  and  heard  in 
the  distance  the  footsteps  of  the  advancing  multitude 
that  were  coming  to  take  possession  of  the  valley 
,,  Meantime,  he  claimed  the  territory  for  France,  and 
gave  it  the  name  of  Louisiana.  The  year  of  the 
descent  has  been  unnecessarily  made  a  question  ;  its 
accomplishment  was  known  in  Paris  before  the  end 
of  1682. 

This  was  the  period  of  the  proudest  successes  and 
largest  ambition  of  Louis  XIV.  La  Salle  will  return, 
it  was  said,  to  give  to  the  court  an  ample  account  of 
the  terrestrial  paradise  of  America;  —  there  the  king 

1683  w*^  at  once  ca^  *nto  kemg  a  flourishing  empire.  And, 
May  in  fact,  La  Salle,  remaining  in  the  west  till  his  exclu- 
Nov.  sive  privilege  had  expired,  returned  to  Quebec  to  em- 

La  Hon-   ,       ,     r       -p^ 

tan.    bark  for  r  ranee. 

Colbert,  whose  genius  had  awakened  a  national 
spirit  in  behalf  of  French  industry,  and  who  yet  had 
rested  his  system  of  commerce  and  manufactures  on  no 
firmer  basis  than  that  of  monopoly,  was  no  more  ;  but 
Seignelay,  his  son,  the  minister  for  maritime  affairs, 
listened  confidingly  to  the  expected  messenger  from 
the  land  which  was  regarded  with  pride  as  "the  de- 
light of  the  New  World." 

1684.  In  tne  early  months  of  1684,  the  preparations  for 
colonizing  Louisiana  were  perfected,  and  in  July  the 
fleet  left  Rochelle.  Four  vessels  were  destined  for 
the  Mississippi,  bearing  two  hundred  arid  eighty  per- 


THE    COLONY    SAILS    FOR    LOUISIANA       BEAJJEU.  169 

sons,  to  take  possession  of  the  valley.     Of  these,  one  CHAP 
hundred  were  soldiers  —  an  ill  omen,  for  successful  col-  -~*^ 


onists  always  defend  themselves  :  about  thirty  were 
volunteers,  two  of  whom  —  young  Cavalier,  and  the 
rash,  passionate  Moranget  —  were  nephews  to  La 
Salle  :  of  ecclesiastics,  there  were  three  Franciscans, 
and  three  of  St.  Sulpice,  one  of  them  being  brother  to 
La  Salle  :  there  were,  moreover,  mechanics  of  various 
skill  ;  and  the  presence  of  young  women  proved  the 
design  of  permanent  colonization.  But  the  mechanics 
were  poor  workmen,  ill  versed  in  their  art;  the  sol- 
diers, though  they  had  for  their  commander  Joutel,  a 
man  of  courage  and  truth,  and  afterwards  the  historian 
of  the  grand  enterprise,  were  themselves  spiritless  vag- 
abonds, without  discipline  and  without  experience  ; 
the  volunteers  were  restless  with  indefinite  expecta- 
tions ;  and,  worst  of  all,  the  naval  commander,  Beau- 
jeu,  was  deficient  in  judgment,  incapable  of  sympathy 
with  the  magnanimous  heroism  of  La  Salle,  envious, 
self-willed,  and  foolishly  proud. 

Disasters  lowered  on  the  voyage  at  its  commence- 
ment :  a  mast  breaks  ;  they  return  :  the  voyage  begins 
anew  amidst  variances  between  La  Salle  and  the  naval 
commander.  In  every  instance  on  the  record,  the 
judgment  of  La  Salle  was  right. 

At  St.  Domingo,    La   Salle,   delayed    and   cruelly 
thwarted  by  Beaujeu,  saw  already  the  shadow  of  his 
coming  misfortunes.     On  leaving  the  island,  they  were 
more  at  variance  than  ever.     They  double  Cape  Anto-    ^cc. 
nio;  they  discover  land  on  the  continent;  aware  of  the     28. 
easterly  direction  of  the  Gulf  Stream,  they  sail  slowly 
in  the  opposite  course.     On  the  tenth  day  of  January,  1685. 
1685,  they  must  have  been  near  the  mouth  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi  ;  but  La  Salle  thought  not,  and  the  fleet  sailed 

VOL.    III.  22 


170       LA  SALLE  SHIPWRECKED  AND  LEFT  IN  TEXAS. 

CHAP.  by.  Presently,  he  perceived  his  error,  and  desired  to 
<- — -  return ;  but  Beaujeu  refused ;  and  thus  they  sailed  to 
1685  the  west,  and  still  to  the  west,  till  they  reached  the 
Bay  of  Matagorda.  Weary  of  differences  with  Beau- 
jeu,— believing  the  streams  that  had  their  outlet  in 
the  bay  might  be  either  branches  from  the  Missis- 
sippi, or  lead  to  its  vicinity,  La  Salle  resolved  to  dis- 
embark. While  he  was  busy  in  providing  for  the 
safety  of  his  men,  his  store-ship,  on  entering  the  har- 
bor, was  wrecked  by  the  careless  pilot.  Others  gazed 
listlessly;  La  Salle,  calming  the  terrible  energy  of  his 
grief  at  the  sudden  ruin  of  his  boundless  hopes,  bor- 
rowed boats  from  the  fleet  to  save,  at  least,  some  pres- 
ent supplies.  But  with  night  came  a  gale  of  wind,  and 
the  vessel  was  dashed  utterly  in  pieces.  The  stores, 
provided  with  the  munificence  that  marked  the  plans 
of  Louis  XIV.,  lay  scattered  on  the  sea ;  little  could 
be  saved.  To  aggravate  despair,  the  savages  came 
down  to  pilfer,  and  murdered  two  of  the  volunteers. 

Terror  pervaded  the  group  of  colonists  :  the  evils  of 
the  wreck  and  the  gale  were  charged  to  La  Salle, — as 
if  he  ought  to  have  deepened  the  channel  and  con- 
trolled the  winds ;  men  deserted,  and  returned  in  the 
fleet.  La  Salle,  who,  by  the  powerful  activity  of  his 
will,  controlled  the  feeble  and  irritable  persons  that 
surrounded  him,  and  even  censured  their  inefficiency, 
their  treachery,  and  their  disobedience,  with  angry  vehe- 
mence, was  yet,  in  his  struggle  against  adversity,  rnag- 
J<ge1'  nanimously  tranquil.  The  fleet  sets  sail,  and  there 
remain  on  the  beach  of  Matagorda  a  desponding  com- 
pany of  about  two  hundred  and  thirty,  huddled  to- 
gether in  a  fort  constructed  of  the  fragments  of  their 
shipwrecked  vessel,  having  no  reliance. but  in  the  con- 
stancy and  elastic  genius  of  La  Salle. 


TEXAS   COLONIZED   AS   A   PROVINCE   OF  LOUISIANA.  171 

Ascending  the  small  stream  at  the  west  of  the  bay,  CHAP. 
in  the  vain  hope  of  finding  the  Mississippi,  La  Salle  ^~ 
selected  a  site  on  the  open  ground  for  the  establishment 
of  a  fortified  post.  The  spot,  which  he  named  St.  Louis, 
was  a  gentle  slope,  which  showed,  towards  the  west 
and  south-west,  the  boundless  expansion  of  the  beauti- 
ful landscape,  verdant  with  luxuriant  grasses,  and 
dotted  with  groves  of  forest-trees,  south  and  east  was 
the  Bay  of  Matagorda,  skirted  with  prairies.  The 
waters  abounded  with  fish,  and  invited  crowds  of 
wild  fowl ;  the  fields  were  alive  with  deer>  and  bisons, 
and  wild  turkeys,  and  the  dangerous  rattlesnake, 
bright  inhabitant  of  the  meadows.  There,  under  the 
suns  of  June,  with  timber  felled  in  an  inland  grove, 
and  dragged  for  a  league  over  the  prairie  grass,  the  col- 
onists prepared  to  build  a  shelter,  La  Salle  being  the 
architect,  and  himself  marking  the  beams,  and  tenons, 
and  mortises.  With  parts  of  the  wreck,  brought  up 
in  canoes,  a  second  house  was  framed,  and  of  each 
the  roof  was  covered  with  buffalo  skins. 

This  is  the  settlement  which  made  Texas  a  part  of 
Louisiana.  In  its  sad  condition,  it  had  yet  saved  from 
the  wreck  a  good  supply  of  arms,  and  bars  of  iron  for 
the  forge.  Even  now,  this  colony  possessed,  from  the 
bounty  of  Louis  XIV.,  more  than  was  contributed  by 
all  the  English  monarchs  together  for  the  twelve  Eng- 
lish colonies  on  the  Atlantic.  Its  number  still  exceed- 
ed that  of  the  colony  of  Smith  in  Virginia,  or  of  those 
who  embarked  in  the  Mayflower.  France  took  pos- 
session of  Texas  ;  her  arms  were  carved  on  its  stately 
forest-trees ;  and  by  no  treaty,  or  public  document,  ex- 
cept the  general  cessions  of  Louisiana,  did  she  ever 
after  relinquish  the  right  to  the  province  as  colonized 
under  her  banners, and  made  still  more  surely  a  part  of 
her  territory,  because  the  colony  found  there  its  grave. 


172  CONTINUED  MISFORTUNES  OF  LA  SALLE. 

CHAP       Excursions  into  the  vicinity  of  the  Fort  St.  Louis  had 
~^~  discovered  nothing  but  the  luxuriant  productiveness  of 
lDec    tne  countrj-     La  Salle  proposed  to  seek  the  Missis- 
sippi in  canoes ;  and,  after  an  absence  of  about  four 

1686  months,  and  the  loss  of  twelve  or  thirteen  men,  he  re- 
Mar,    turned  in  rags,  having  failed  to  find  "the  fatal  river," 

and  yet  renewing  hope  by  his  presence.  In  April,  he 
plunged  into  the  wilderness,  with  twenty  companions, 
lured  towards  New  Mexico  by  the  brilliant  fictions  of 
the  rich  mines  of  Sainte  Barbe,  the  El  Dorado  of 
Northern  Mexico.  There,  among  the  Cenis,  he  suc- 
•ceeded  in  obtaining  five  horses,  and  supplies  of  maize 
and  beans :  he  found  no  mines,  but  a  country  unsur- 
passed for  beauty  of  climate  and  exuberant  fertility. 

On  his  return,  he  heard  of  the  wreck  of  the  little 
bark  which  had  remained  with  the  colony :  he  heard 
it  unmoved.  Heaven  and  man  seemed  his  enemies ; 
and,  with  the  giant  energy  of  an  indomitable  will, 
having  lost  his  hopes  of  fortune,  his  hopes  of  fame, — 
with  his  colony  diminished  to  about  forty,  among 
whom  discontent- had  given  birth  to  plans  of  crime, — 
with  no  Europeans  nearer  than  the  River  Panuco,  no 
French  nearer  than  Illinois, — he  resolved  to  travel  on 
foot  to  his  countrymen  at  the  north,  and  return  from 
Canada  to  renew  his  colony  in  Texas. 

1687  Leaving  twenty  men  at  Fort  St.  Louis,  in  January, 
\™'    1687,  La  Salle,  with  sixteen  men,  departed  for  Cana- 
da.    Lading  their  baggage  on  the  wild  horses  from 
the  Cenis,  which  found  their  pasture  every  where  in  the 
prairies ;    in  shoes  made  of  green  buffalo  hides ;    for 
want  of  other  paths,  following  the  track  of  the  buffalo, 
and  using  skins  as  the  only  shelter  against  rain ;  win- 
ning favor  with  the  savages  by  the  confiding  courage 
of  their  leader; — they  ascended   the  streams  towards 


LA   SALLE  ASSASSINATED.      TRAITS    OF  HIS  CHARACTER. 

the  first  ridge  of  highlands,  walking  through  beautiful 
plains  and  groves,  among  deer  and  buffaloes,  —  now  ford-  ^^. 
ing  the  clear  rivulets,  now  building  a  bridge  by  felling  1687> 
a  giant  tree  across  a  stream,  —  till  they  had  passed  the 
basin  of  the  "Colorado,  and,  in  the  upland  country,  had 
reached  a  branch  of  Trinity  River.  In  the  little  com- 
pany of  wanderers,  there  were  two  men,  Duhaut  and 
L  Archeveque,  who  had  embarked  their  capital  in  the 
enterprise.  Of  these,  Duhaut  had  long  shown  a  spirit 
of  mutiny  :  the  base  malignity  of  disappointed  ava- 
rice, maddened  by  suffering,  and  impatient  of  control, 
awakened  the  fiercest  passions  of  ungovernable  hatred. 
Inviting  Moranget  to  take  charge  of  the  fruits  of  a  buf- 
falo hunt,  they  quarrelled  with  him,  and  murdered  him.  j1™ 
Wondering  at  the  delay  of  his  nephew's  return,  La 
Salle,  on  the  twentieth  of  March,  went  to  seek  him. 
At  the  brink  of  the  river,  he  observed  eagles  hover- 
ing as  if  over  carrion;  and  he  fired  an  alarm  gun. 
Warned  by  the  sound,  Duhaut  and  L'Archeveque 
crossed  the  river;  the  former  skulked  in  the  prairie 
grass;  of  the  latter,  La  Salle  asked,  "Where  is  my 
nephew?"  At  the  moment  of  the  answer,  Duhaut 
fired  ;  and,  without  uttering  a  word,  La  Salle  fell  dead 
"You  are  down  now,  grand  bashaw!  you  are  down 
now!"  shouted  one  of  the  conspirators,  as  they  de- 
spoiled his  remains,  which  were  left  on  the  prairie,  na- 
ked and  without  burial,  to  be  devoured  by  wild  beasts. 
Such  was  the  end  of  this  daring  adventurer.  Fpr 
force  of  will,  and  vast  conceptions;  for  various  knowl- 
edge, and  quick  adaptation  of  his  genius  to  untried  cir- 
cumstances ;  for  a  sublime  magnanimity,  that  resigned 
itself  to  the  will  of  Heaven,  and  yet  triumphed  over 
affliction  by  energy  of  purpose  and  unfaltering  hope,  — 
he  had  no  superior  among  his  counirymen.  He  had 


174     JUUTEL  REACHES  A  FRENCH  POST  IN  ARKANSAS. 

CHAP,  won    the    affection  of  the    governor  of  Canada,  the 

esteem   of  Colbert,  the  confidence  of  Seignelay,  the 

1 687.  favor  of  Louis  XIV.  After  beginning  the  colonization 
of  Upper  Canada,  he  perfected  the  discovery  of  the 
Mississippi  from  the  Falls  of  St.  Anthony  to  its  mouth; 
and  he  will  be  remembered  through  all  time  as  the 
father  of  colonization  in  the  great  central  valley  of 
the  west. 

But  avarice  and  passion  were  not  calmed  by  the 
blood  of  La  Salle.  Duhaut  and  another  of  the  con- 
spirators, grasping  at  an  unequal  share  in  the  spoils, 
were  themselves  murdered,  while  their  reckless  asso- 
ciates joined  a  band  of  savages.  Joutel,  with  the 
brother  and  surviving  nephew  of  La  Salle,  and  others, 
in  all  but  seven,  obtained  a  guide  for  the  Arkansas; 
and — fording  rivulets,  crossing  ravines,  by  rafts  or  boats 
of  buffalo  hides  making  a  ferry  over  rivers,  not  meeting 
the  cheering  custom  of  the  calumet  till  they  reached 
the  country  above  the  Red  River,  leaving  an  esteemed 
companion  in  a  wilderness  grave,  on  which  the  piety 
of  an  Indian  matron  heaped  offerings  of  maize — at  last, 
as  the  survivors  came  upon  a  branch  of  the  Mississippi, 
they  beheld  on  an  island  a  large  cross.  Never  did 
Christian  gaze  on  that  emblem  with  heartier  joy. 
Near  it  stood  a  log  hut,  tenanted  by  two  Frenchmen. 
Tonti  had  descended  the  river,  and,  full  of  grief  at 
not  finding  La  Salle,  had  established  a  post  near  the 
Arkansas. 


CHAPTER    XXI. 


FRANCE    CONTENDS    FOR  THE    FISHERIES  AND   THE 
GREAT    WEST. 


SUCH  were  the  events  which  gave  to  the  French  CHAT 
not  only  New  France  and  Acadia,  Hudson's  Bay  and    — * 
Newfoundland,  but  a  claim  to  a  moiety  of  Maine,  of 
Vermont,  and  to  more  than  a  moiety  of  New  York,  to 
the  whole  valley  of  the  Mississippi,  and  to  Texas  even, 
as  far  as  the  Rio  Bravo  del  Norte.     Throughout  that 
wide  region,  it  sought  to  introduce  its  authority,  under 
the  severest  forms  of  the  colonial  system.     That  sys- 
tem was  enforced,  with  equal  eagerness,  by  England 
upon  the  sea-coast.     Could  France,  and  England,  and 
Spain,  have  amicably  divided  the  American  continent; 
could  they  have  been  partners,  and  not  rivals,  in  op 
pression ;  I  know  not  whence  hope  could  have  beamed 
upon  the  colonies. 

But  th.e  aristocratic  revolution  of  England  was  the 
signal  for  a  war  with  France,  growing  out  of  "  a  root 
of  enmity,"  which  Marlborough  described  as  "  irrecon- 
cilable to  the  government  and  the  religion "  of  Great 
Britain*  Louis  XIV.  took  up  arms  in  defence  of  legit- 
imacy;  and  England  had  the  glorious  office  of  asserting 
the  right  of  a  nation  to  reform  its  government.  But, 
though  the  progress  of  the  revolutionary  principle  was 
the  root  of  the  enmity,  France  could  not,  at  once,  ob- 
tain the  alliance  of  every  European  power  which  was 


176  COLONIAL    RIVALRY    OF    FRANCE    AND    ENGL\ND. 

CHAP,  unfriendly  to  change.     She  had  encroached  on  ever} 

neighbor ;  and  fear,  and  a  sense  of  wrong,  made  all  of 

them  her  enemies.  From  regard  to  the  integrity  of 
its  territory,  the  German  empire,  with  Austria,  joined 
with  England ;  and,  as  the  Spanish  Netherlands,  which 
constituted  the  barrier  of  Holland  and  Germany  against 
France,  and  the  path  of  England  into  the  heart  of  the 
continent,  could  be  saved  from  conquest  by  France  on- 
ly through  the  interposition  of  England  and  Holland, 
an  alliance  followed  between  the  Protestant  revolution- 
ary republic  and  monarchy,  on  the  one  side,  and  the 
bigoted  defender  of  the  Roman  Catholic  church  and 
legitimacy,  on  the  other.  Hence,  also,  in  the  first 
war  of  King  William,  the  frontiers  of  Carolina,  bor- 
dering on  the  possessions  of  Spain,  were  safe  against 
invasion :  Spain  and  England  were  allies. 

Thus  the  war  of  1689,  in  Europe,  roused  Louis 
XIV.  in  behalf  of  legitimacy,  and,  at  the  same  time, 
j allied  against  him,  not  England  only,  but  every  power 
which  dreaded  his  lawless  ambition.  William  III.  was 
not  only  the  defender  of  the  nationality  of  England, 
but  of  the  territorial  freedom  of  Europe. 

In  the  colonies,  the  strife  was,  on  behalf  of  their  re- 
spective mother  countries,  for  the  fisheries,  and  for  ter- 
ritory at  the  north  and  west.  The  idea  of  weakening 
an  adversary,  by  encouraging  its  colonies  to  assert 
independence,  did  not,  at  that  time,  exist;  the  univer- 
sal maxim  of  European  statesmen  assumed  the  fact, 
that  colonies  have  a  master.  In  the  contests  that  fol- 
lowed, the  religious  faith,  and  the  roving  enterprise  of 
the  French  Canadians,  secured  to  Louis  XIV.  their 
active  support.  The  English  colonists,  on  the  contra- 
ry, sided  heartily  with  England:  the  English  revolu- 
tion was  to  them  the  pledge  for  freedom  of  mind,  as 


CENSUS.      FRANCE  ATTEMPTS    AN    INDIAN    ALLIANCE  177 

marked  by  Protestantism ;    for  national  freedom,  as  il-  CHAP. 

XXI 

lustrated  in  the  exile  of  a  tyrant,  and  in  the  election  of 

a  constitutional  king.     Thus  the  strife  in  America  was  1C89< 
between  England  and   France  for  the  possession  of 
colonial  monopolies ;  and,  in  that  strife,  England  rallied 
her  forces  under  the  standard  of  advancing  freedom. 

If  the  issue  had  depended  on  the  condition  of  the 
colonies,  it  could  hardly  have  seemed  doubtful.  The 
French  census  for  the  North  American  continent,  in 
1688,  showed  but  eleven  thousand  two  hundred  and 
forty-nine  persons — scarcely  a  tenth  part  of  the  Eng- 
lish population  on  its  frontiers ;  about  a  twentieth  part 
of  English  North  America. 

O  -  . 

West  of  Montreal,  the  principal  French  posts,  and  168 8. 
those  but  inconsiderable  ones,  were  at  Frontenac,  at 
Mackinaw,  and  on  the  Illinois.  At  Niagara,  there 
was  a  wavering  purpose  of  maintaining  a  post,  but  no 
permanent  occupation.  So  weak  were  the  garrisons, 
that  English  traders,  with  an  escort  of  Indians,  had 
ventured  even  to  Mackinaw,  and,  by  means  of  the 
Senecas,  obtained  a  large  share  of  the  commerce  of  the 
lakes.  French  diplomacy  had  attempted  to  pervade  1687. 
the  west,  and  concert  an  alliance  with  all  the  tribes 
from  Lake  Ontario  to  the  Mississippi.  The  traders 
were  summoned  even  from  the  plains  of  the  Sioux ; 
arid  Tonti  and  the  Illinois  were,  by  way  of  the  Ohio 
and  the  Alleghany,  to  precipitate  themselves  on  the 
Senecas,  while  the  French  should  come  from  Montreal, 
and  the  Ottawas  and  other  Algonquins,  under  Duran- 
taye,  the  vigilant  commander  at  Mackinaw,  should  de- 
scend from  Michigan.  But  the  power  of  the  Illinois 
was  broken;  the  Hurons  and  Ottawas  were  almost 
ready  to  become  the  allies  of  the  Senecas.  The  sav- 
ages still  held  the  keys  of  the  great  west;  no  inter-  1688. 
VOL.  in.  23 


178   STATE  OF  THE  FRENCH  COLONIES  BEFORE  THE  WAR 

CHAP,  course  existed  but  by  means  of  the  forest  rangers,  who 
penetrated  the  barren  heaths  round  Hudson's  Bay,  the 

1688.  morasses  of  the  north-west,  the  homes  of  the  Sioux  and 
Miamis,  the  recesses  of  every  forest  where  there  was 
an  Indian  with  skins  to  sell.     "  God  alone  could  have 
saved  Canada  this  year,"  wrote  Denonville,  in  1688. 
But  for  the  missions  at  the  west,  Illinois  would  have 
been  abandoned,   the    fort  at  Mackinaw  lost,   and  a 
general  rising  of  the  natives  would  have  completed  the 
ruin  of  New  France. 

1689.  Personal  enterprise   took   the    direction  of  the   fur 
trade :  Port  Nelson,  in  Hudson's  Bay,  and  Fort  Al- 
bany, were  originally  possessed  by  the  French.     The 
attention  of  the  court  of  France  was  directed  to  the 
fisheries;    and  Acadia  had   been   represented   by  De 
Meules  as  the  most  important  settlement  of  France. 
To   protect  it,  the  Jesuits  Vincent  and  James  Bigot 
collected  a  village  of  Abenakis  on  the  Penobscot ;  and 
a  flourishing  town  now  marks  the  spot  where  the  baron 
de  St.  Castin,  a  veteran  officer  of  the  regiment  of  Ca- 
rignan,  established  a  trading  fort.     Would  France,  it 
was  said,  strengthen  its  post  on  the  Penobscot,  occupy 
the  islands  that  command  the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence, 
and  send  supplies  to  Newfoundland,  she  would  be  sole 
mistress  of  the  fisheries  for  cod.     Hence    the    strife 
with  Massachusetts,  in  which  the  popular  mind  was  so 
deeply  interested,  that,  to  this  day,   the   figure   of  a 
cod-fish  is  suspended  in  the  hall  of  its  representatives. 

Thus  France,  bounding  its  territory  next  New  Eng- 
land by  the  Kennebec,  claimed  the  whole  eastern  coast, 
Nova  Scotia,  Cape  Breton,  Newfoundland,  Labrador, 
and  Hudson's  Bay ;  and,  to  assert  and  defend  this 
boundless  region,  Acadia  and  its  dependencies  counted 
but  nine  hundred  French  inhabitants.  The  missions- 


FRANCE    DECLARES    WAR.      INDIANS    TAKE    MONTREAL          1  79 

ries,  swaying  the  mind  of  the  Abenakis,  were  the  sole  CHAR 

XXI 

source  of  hope.  — -^ 

On  the  declaration  of  war  by  France  against  Eng-  1689. 
land,  Count  Frontenac,  once  more  governor  of  Canada, 
was  charged  to  recover  Hudson's  Bay;  to  protect  Aca- 
dia;  and,  by  a  descent  from  Canada,  to  assist  a  fleet 
from  France  in  making  conquest  of  New  York.  Of 
that  province  De  Callieres  was,  in  advance,  appointed 
governor ;  the  English  Catholics  were  to  be  permitted 
to  remain, — other  inhabitants,  to  be  sent  into  Pennsyl- 
vania or  New  England.  But,  on  reaching  the  Gulf 
of  St.  Lawrence,  Frontenac  learned  the  capture  of 
Montreal. 

On  the  twenty-fifth  of  August,  the  Iroquois,  fifteen  1689, 
hundred  in  number,  reached  the  Isle  of  Montreal,  at  ^ 
La  Chine,  at  break  of  day,  and,  finding  all  asleep,  set 
fire  to  the  houses,  and  engaged  in  one  general  massacre. 
In  less  than  an  hour,  two  hundred  people  met  death 
under  forms  too  horrible  for  description.  Approach- 
ing Montreal,  they  ma,de  an  equal  number  of  prisoners, 
and  though  they  never  were  masters  of  the  city,  they 
roamed  unmolested  over  the  island  till  the  middle  of 
October.  In  the  moment  of  consternation,  Denon- 
ville  had  ordered  Fort  Frontenac,  on  Lake  Ontario, 
to  be  evacuated  and  razed.  From  Three  Rivers  to 
Mackinaw,  there  remained  not  one  French  town,  and 
hardly  even  a  post. 

In  Hudson's  Bay,  a  band  of  brothers — De  Sainte  1689. 
Hclcne  and  D'lberville" — sustained  the  honor  of  French 
arms.  They  were  Canadians,  sons  of  Charles  Le- 
moine,  an  early  emigrant  from  Normandy,  whose  nu- 
merous offspring  gave  also  to  American  history  the 
name  ol  Bienville.  Passing  across  the  ridge  that  di- 


ISO       THE    BRITISH  LOSE    HUDSON'S  BAY.      INDIAN    REVENGE. 

CHAP,  vides  the  rivers  of  Hudson's  Bay  from  those  of  the  St. 

XXI 

— ^~  Lawrence,    amidst    marvellous   adventures,    by   hard) 

1689.  resolution  and  daring  presence  of  mind,  they  had,  in 
1686,  conquered  the  English  posts  from  Fort  Ru- 
pert to  Albany  River,  leaving  the  English  no  trading 
house  in  the  bay,  except  that  of  which,  in  1685,  they 
had  dispossessed  the  French  at  Port  Nelson.  That 
post  remained  to  the  English ;  but  the  sons  of  Le- 
moine  intercepted  the  forces  which  were  sent  to  pro- 

1689.  claim  William  of  Orange  monarch  over  jagged  cliffs, 
and  deep  ravines  never  warmed  by  a  sunbeam, — over 
the  glaciers  and  mountains,  the  rivers  and  trading- 
houses  in  Hudson's  Bay.  Exulting  in  their  success, 
they  returned  to  Quebec. 

1689  In  the  east,  blood  was  first  shed  at  Cocheco,  where, 
27.  thirteen  years  before,  an  unsuspecting  party  of  three 
hundred  and  fifty  Indians  had  been  taken  prisoners, 
and  shipped  for  Boston,  to  be  sold  into  foreign  slavery. 
The  memory  of  the  treachery  was  indelible ;  and  the 
Indian  emissaries  of  Castin  easily  excited  the  tribe  of 
Penacook  to  revenge.  On  the  evening  of  the  twenty- 
seventh  of  June,  two  squaws  repaired  to  the  house  of 
Richard  Waldron,  and  the  octogenarian  magistrate 
bade  them  lodge  on  the  floor  At  night,  they  rise,  un- 
bar the  gates,  and  summon  their  companions,  who  at 
once  enter  every  apartment.  "What  now?  what  now?" 
shouted  the  brave  old  man ;  and,  seizing  his  sword,  he 
defended  himself  till  he  fell  stunned  by  a  blow  from  a 
hatchet.  1  liny  then  placed  him  in  a  chair  on  a  table 
in  his  own  hall:  "Judge  Indians  again!" — thus  they 
mocked  him ;  and,  making  cruel  sport  of  their  debts 
to  him  as  a  trader,  they  drew  gashes  across  his  breast, 
and  each  one  cried,  "Thus  I  cross  out  my  account!" 
At  last,  the  mutilated  man  reeled  from  faintness,  and 


THE   WAR    OF   THE    EASTERN    TRIBES.  18  J 

died  in  the  midst  of  tortures.     The  Indians,  burning  CHAP. 
his  hous3,  and  others  that  stood  near  it,  having  killed  - — -• 
three-and-twenty,   returned    to    the   wilderness   with 
twenty-nine  captives. 

August  comes.  The  women  and  children,  at  the  16 su. 
Penobscot  village  of  Canibas,  have  confessed  their  sins 
to  the  priest  Thury,  that  so  they  may  uplift  purer 
hands,  while  their  fathers  and  brothers  proceed  against 
the  heretics ; — in  the  little  chapel,  the  missionary  and 
his  neophytes  have  established  a  perpetual  rosary  dur- 
ing the  expedition,  and  even  the  hours  of  repast  do  not 
interrupt  the  edifying  exercise.  A  hundred  warriors, 
purified  also  by  confession,  in  a  fleet  of  bark  canoes, 
steal  out  of  the  Penobscot,  and  paddle  towards  Pema- 
quid.  Thomas  Gyles  and  his  sons  are  at  work,  in  the  Q  leg 
sunny  noontide,  making  hay:  a  volley  whistles  by 
them; — a  short  encounter  ends  in  their  defeat.  "1 
ask  no  favor,"  says  the  wounded  father,  "  but  leave  to 
pray  with  my  children."  Pale  with  the  loss  of  blood, 
he  commends  his  children  to  God,  then  bids  them 
farewell  for  this  world,  yet  in  the  hope  of  seeing 
them  in  a  better.  The  Indians,  restless  at  delay,  use 
the  hatchet,  and,  for  burial,  heap  boughs  over  his  body. 
After  a  defence  of  two  days,  the  stockade  at  Pemaquid 
capitulates;  and  the  warriors  return  to  Penobscot  to 
exult  over  their  prisoners.  Other  inroads  were  made 
by  the  Penobscot  and  St.  John  Indians,  so  that  the 
settlements  east  of  Falmouth  were  deserted. 

In  September,  commissioners  from  New  England 
held  a  conference  wiJi  the  Mohawks  at  Albany,  so- 
liciting an  alliance.  "We  have  burned  Montreal,"  said 
they;  "we  are  allies  of  the  English;  we  will  keep  the 
chain  unbroken."  But  they  refused  to  invade  the 
Abenakis. 


182   FRONTENAC'S  EXPEDITIONS.   FATE  OF  SCHENECTADY. 

CHAP.      Had  Frontenac  never  left  New  France,  Montreal 

^ —  would  probably  have  been  safe.  He  now  used  every 
effort  to  win  the  Five  Nations  to  neutrality  or  to 
friendship.  To  recover  esteem  in  their  eyes ;  to  se- 
cure to  Durantaye,  the  commander  at  Mackinaw,  the 
means  of  treating  with  the  Hurons  and  the  Ottawas; 
it  was  resolved  by  Frontenac  to  make  a  triple  descent 
into  the  English  provinces. 

1690.  From  Montreal,  a  party  of  one  hundred  and  ten, 
an*  composed  of  French,  and  of  the  Christian  Iroquois, — 
having  De  Mantet  and  Sainte  Helene  as  leaders,  and 
D'Iberville,  the  hero  of  Hudson's  Bay,  as  a  volunteer, 
— for  two-and-twenty  days,  waded  through  snows  and 
morasses,  through  forests  and  across  rivers,  to  Sche- 
nectady.  The  village  had  given  itself  calmly  to  slum- 
ber: through  open  and  unguarded  gates  the  invaders 

Feb.  a  entered  silently,  and  having,  just  before  midnight, 
reached  its  heart,  the  war-whoop  was  raised,  (dread- 
ful sound  to  the  mothers  of  that  place  and  their  chil- 
dren!) and  the  dwellings  set  on  fire.  Of  the  inhab- 
itants, some,  half  clad,  fled  through  the  snows  to  Al- 
bany; sixty  were  massacred,  of  whom  seventeen  were 
children,  and  ten  were  Africans.  For  such  ends  had 
the  hardships  of  a  winter's  expedition,  frost,  famine, 
and  frequent  deaths,  been  encountered:  such  was  war. 
The  party  from  Three  Rivers,  led  by  Hertel,  and 
consisting  of  but  fifty-two  persons,  of  whom  three 
Jtf.  were  his  sons,  and  two  his  nephews,  surprised  the  set- 
tlement at  Salmon  Falls,  on  the  Piscataqua,  and,  after 
a  bloody  engagement,  burned  houses,  barns,  and  cattle 
in  the  stalls,  and  took  fifty-four  prisoners,  chiefly  women 
and  children.  The  prisoners  were  laden  by  the  victors 
with  spoils  from  their  own  homes.  Robert  Rogers, 


SAVAGE    WARFARE.       FIRST    CONGRESS    IN  AMERICA.  183 

rejecting  his  burden,  was  bound  by  the  Indians  to  a  CHAP. 

tree,  and  dry  leaves  kindled  about  him,  yet  in  such '- 

heaps  as  would  burn  but  slowly.  Mary  Furguson,  a  I690- 
girl  of  fifteen,  burst  into  tears  from  fatigue,  and  was 
scalped  forthwith.  Mehetabel  Goodwin  would  linger 
apart  in  the  snow  to  lull  her  infant  to  sleep,  lest  its 
cries  should  provoke  the  savages:  angry  at  the  delay, 
her  master  struck  the  child  against  a  tree,  and  hung  it 
among  the  branches.  The  infant  of  Mary  Plaisted 
was  thrown  into  the  river,  that,  eased  of  her  burden, 
she  might  walk  faster. 

Returning  from  this  expedition,  Hertel  met  the  war 
party,  under  Portneuf,  from  Quebec,  and,  with  them 
and  a  reinforcement  from  Castin,  made  a  successful 
attack  on  the  fort  and  settlement  in  Casco  Bay.  May. 

Meantime,  danger  taught  the  colonies  the  necessity 
of  union,  and,  on  the  first  day  of  May,  1690,  New 
York  beheld  the  momentous  example  of  an  American 
" congress."  The  idea  originated  with  the  govern- 
ment of  Massachusetts,  established  by  the  people  in 
the  period  that  intervened  between  the  overthrow  of 
Andros  and  the  arrival  of  the  second,  charter ;  and  the 
place  of  meeting  was  New  York,  where,  likewise,  the 
government  had  sprung  directly  from  the  action  of  the 
people.  Thus,  without  exciting  suspicion,  were  the 
forms  of  independence  and  union  prepared.  The  in- 
vitations were  given  by  letters  from  the  general  court 
of  Massachusetts,  and  extended  to  all  the  colonies  as 
far,  at  least,  as  Maryland.  Massachusetts,  the  par- 
imt  of  so  many  states,  is  certainly  the  parent  of  the 
American  Union.  At  that  congress,  it  was  resolved 
10  attempt  the  conquest  of  Canada  by  marching  an 
army,  by  way  of  Lake  Champlain,  against  Montreal, 
while  Massachusetts  should,  with  a  fleet,  attack  Que- 


184       ACADIA   SURRENDERS.      ATTEMPT  ON  MONTREAL  FAILS. 

CHAP.  bee.     Thus  did  Massachusetts,  Connecticut,  and  New 

XXI 

v^v^  York,  having,  at  that  time,  each  a  government  consti- 

1690.  tuted  by  itself,  in  the  spirit  of  independence,  not  only 

provide  for  order  and  tranquillity  at  home,  but,  unaided 

by  England,  of  themselves  plan  the  invasion  of  Acadia 

and  Canada. 

Acadia  was  soon  conquered :  before  the  end  of  May, 
Sir  William  Phipps,  failing  to  bring  seasonable  supplies 
to  Fal  mouth,  sailed  to  Port  Royal,  which  readily  sur- 
rendered. New  England  was  mistress  of  the  coast 
to  the  eastern  extremity  of  Nova  Scotia,  though  the 
native  hordes  of  that  wilderness  still  retained  their  af- 
fection for  the  French. 

While  the  people  of  New  England  and  New  York 
were  concerting  the  grand  enterprise  of  the  reduction 
of  Canada,  the  French  had,  by  their  successes,  in- 
spired the  savages  with  respect,  and  renewed  their 
intercourse  with  the  west.  But,  in  August,  Montreal 
became  alarmed.  An  Indian  announces  that  an  army 
of  Iroquois  and  English  was  busy  in  constructing  ca- 
noes on  Lake  George;  and  immediately  Frontenac 
himself  placed  the  hatchet  in  the  hands  of  his  allies, 
and,  with  the  tomahawk  in  his  own  grasp,  old  as  he 
tvas,  chanted  the  war-song,  and  danced  the  war-dance- 
On  the  twenty-ninth  of  August,  it  was  said  that  an 
army  had  reached  Lake  Champlain ;  but,  on  the  sec- 
ond of  September,  the  spies  could  observe  no  trail. 
The  projected  attack  by  land  was  defeated  by  divis- 
ions,— Leisler  charging  Winthrop  of  Connecticut  with 
treachery,  and  the  forces  from  Connecticut  blaming 
Milborne,  the  commissary  of  New  York,  for  the  insuffi- 
ciency of  the  supplies. 

Oct.        But,  just  as  Frontenac,  in  the  full  pride  of  security, 
I0t     was  preparing  to  return  to  Quebec,  he  heard  that  an 


THE  NEW  ENGLAND  FLEET  BEFORE  QUEBEC.        185 

Abenaki,  hurrying  through  the  woods  in  twelve  days  CHAP. 
from  Piscataqua,  had  announced   the    approach   of  a  ^^ 
hostile  fleet  from  Boston.     The  little  colony  of  Massa-  1C9° 
chusetts  had  sent  forth  a  fleet  of  thirty-four  sail,  under 
the  command  of  the  incompetent  Phipps,  manned  by 
two  thousand  of  its  citizens,  who,  as  they  now,  with- 
out pilots,  sounded  their  way  up  the  St.  Lawrence, 
anxious  for  the  result  of  the  expedition  against  Mon- 
treal, watched  wistfully  the  course  of  the  winds,  and 
hoped  in  the  efficacy  of  the   prayers  that  went  up, 
evening    and    morning,   from   every   hearth   in    New 
England. 

Had  the  excursion  from  Albany  by  land  succeeded, 

J       * 

—  had  pilots,  or  fair  winds,  or  decision  in  the  com- 


Cotton 


inson. 


mander,  conducted  the  fleet  more  rapidly  but  by  three    Haw-' 


kina. 


days, — the  castle  of  St.  Louis  would  have  been  surprised  C1j£q 
and  taken.     But,  in  the  night  of  the  fourteenth  of  Oc-  Cvh0aixe 
tober,  Frontenac  reached  Quebec.     The  inhabitants 
of  the  vicinity  were  assembled ;  and  the  fortifications 
of  the  city  had  already  been  put  in  a  tenable  condition, 
when,   on  the  sixteenth,  at  daybreak,  the  fleet  from 
Boston  came  in  sight,  and  soon  cast  anchor  near  Beau- 
port,  in  the  stream.     It  was  too  late.     The  herald 
from  the  ship  of  the  admiral,  demanding  a  surrender  of 
the  place,  was  dismissed  with  scoffs.    What  availed  the 
courage  of  the  citizen  soldiers  who  effected  a  landing 
at  Beauport?     Before  them  was  a  fortified  town  de-    °gL 
fended  by  a  garrison  far  more  numerous  than  the  as-    T& 
sailants,  and  protected  by  marshes  and  a  river  fordable 
only  at  low  tide.     The  diversion  against  Montreal  had 
utterly  failed :  the  New  England  men  reembark,  and     11 
sail  for  Boston.     In  Quebec  there  were  great  rejoic-     21- 
ings.    The  church  of  Our  Lady  of  Victory  was  built  in   Haw- 
the  lower  town  in  commemoration  of  the  victory;  and 
VOL.  m.  24 


186  GLOOMY    YEARS    OF    THE    ENGLISH    COLONIES. 

CHAP,  in  France  a  medal  commemorated  the  successes  of 
- — —  Louis  XIV.  in  the  New  World.  The  New  England 
ships,  on  their  return,  were  scattered  by  storms :  of 
one,  bearing  sixty  men,  wrecked  on  Anticosti,  five  of 
the  few  who  did  not  perish  from  the  winter,  boldest 
of  navigators,  landed  in  Boston  in  the  following  May, 
after  a  voyage  of  forty-four  days  in  a  skiff.  Sir  Wil- 
liam Phipps  reached  home  in  November.  The  treas- 
K590.  ury  was  empty.  "Considering  the  present  poverty  of 
DIQ  the  country,  and,  through  scarcity  of  money,  the  want 
of  an  adequate  measure  of  commerce,"  issues  of  bills 
of  credit  were  authorized,  in  notes  from  five  shillings 
to  five  pounds,  to  "  be  in  value  equal  to  money,  and 
accepted  in  all  public  payments."  But,  as  confidence 
wavered,  the  bills  of  the  colony,  which  continued  to  be 
issued,  were  made,  in  all  payments^  a  legal  tender, 
and,  instead  of  bearing  interest,  were  received  at  the 
treasury  at  five  per  cent,  advance. 

1691        Repulsed  from  Canada,  the  exhausted  colonies  at- 
1(Jg6    tempted  little  more  than  the  defence  of  their  frontiers. 
Their  borders  were  full  of  terror  and  sorrow,  of  cap- 
tivity and  death;    but  no  designs   of  conquest  were 
1691.  formed.     If    Schuyler    made    an   irruption    into    the 
French  settlements  on  the  Sorel,  it  was  only  to  gain 
successes  in  a  skirmish,  and  to  effect  a  safe  retreat. 
Nov.    A  French  ship  anchoring  in  Port  Royal,  the  red  cross 
that  floated  over  the  town  made  way  for  the  banner  of 
France ;  and  Acadia  was  once  more  a  dependence  on 
1092.  Canada.     In  January,   1692,  a  party  of  French  and 
Indians,  coming  in  snow-shoes  from  the   east,  burst 
upon  the  town  of  York,  offering  its  inhabitants  no 
choice  but  captivity  or  death.     The  fort  which  was 
rebuilt  at  Pemaquid  was,  at  least,  an  assertion  of  Eng- 
lish supremacy  over  the  neighboring  region.     In  Eng- 


HOSTILITIES*  RENEWED    ON    THE    EASTERN    FRONTIER          187 

land,  the  conquest  of  Canada  was  resolved  on ;    but  CHAP. 

the  fleet  designed  for  the  expedition,  after  a  repulse  at  '- 

Martinique,  sailed  for  Boston,  freighted  with  the  yel- 
low  fever,  which  destroyed  two  thirds  of  the  mariners 
and  soldiers  on  board.  For  a  season,  hostilities  in 
Maine  were  suspended  by  a  treaty  of  peace  with  the 
Abenakis ;  but,  in  less  than  a  year,  solely  through  the 
influence  of  the  Jesuits,  they  were  again  in  the  field,  ju]y* 
led  by  Villieu,  the  French  commander  on  the  Penob-  18< 
scot ;  and  the  village  at  Oyster  River,  in  New  Hamp- 
shire, was  the  victim  of  their  fury.  Ninety-four  persons 
were  killed  and  carried  away.  The  young  wife  of 
Thomas  Drew  was  taken  to  the  tribe  at  Norridge- 
wock:  there,  in  midwinter,  in  the  open  air,  during  a 
storm  of  snow,  she  gave  birth  to  her  first-born,  doomed 
by  the  savages  to  instant  death.  In  Canada,  the  chiefs 
of  the  Micmacs  presented  to  Frontenac  the  scalps  of 
English  killed  on  the  Piscataqua.  Nor  did  the  thought 
occur  that  such  inroads  were  atrocious.  The  Jesuit 
historian  of  France  relates,  with  pride,  that  they  had 
their  origin  in  the  counsels  and  influence  of  the  mis- 
sionaries Thury  and  Bigot ;  and,  extolling  the  hardi- 
hood and  the  success  of  the  foray,  he  passes  a  eulogy 
on  the  daring  of  Taxus,  the  bravest  of  the  Abenakis. 
Such  is  self-love ;  it  has  but  one  root,  with  a  thousand 
branches.  The  despot  believed  his  authority  from 
God,  and  his  own  personality  to  constitute  the  state ; 
the  mistresses  of  kings  were,  without  scruple,  made  by 
patent  the  mothers  of  hereditary  legislators ;  the  Eng- 
lish monopolist  had  no  self-reproach  for  prohibiting  the 
industry  of  the  colonists;  Louis  XIV.,  James  II.,  and 
his  successors,  Queen  Anne,  Bolingbroke,  and  Lady 
Masham,  thought  it  no  harm  to  derive  money  from  the 
slave-trade ;  and,  in  the  pages  of  Chaiievoix,  the  una- 


jgg  THE    ESCAPE   OF    HANNAH    DUSTIN. 

~H«-  vailing  cruelties  of  midnight  incendiaries,  the  murde, 
*£  and  scalping  of  the  inhabitants  of  peaceful  ullages,  and 
the  captivity  of  helpless  women  and  children,  are  diffuse- 
ly narrated  as  actions  that  were  brave  and  beautiful. 
1697       Once,  indeed,  a  mother  achieved  a  startling  revenge. 
«<-*  Seven  days  after  her  confinement,  the  Indian  prowlers 
15'     £  thdr  shouts  near  the  house  of  Hannah  Dustm, 
ofHaverhill:  her  husband  rode  home  from  the  field, 
but  too  late  to  provide  for  her  rescue.     He  must  fly,  if 
he  would  save  even  one  of  his  seven  children,  who  had 
hurried  before  him  into  the  forest.   But,  from  the  cowe, 
in,  flock,  how  could  a  father  make  a  choice  ?    With  gun 
irThis  hand,  he  now  repels  the  assault,  now  cheers  oa 
the  innocent  group  of  little  ones,  as  they  rustle  through 
the  dried  leaves  and  bushes,  till  all  reac     a  sheUer 
The  Indians  burned  his  home,  and  dashed  his  mfan 
against  a  tree ;  and,  after  days  of  weary  marches  Han- 
nah Dustin  and  her  nurse,  with  a  boy  fronv  Worces- 
ter, find   themselves  on   an  island  in  the  Mammae, 
just  above  Concord,  in  a  wigwam  occupied  by  two  In- 
dian families.     The  mother  planned  escape.     "Where 
would  you  strike,"  said  the  boy,  Samuel  Leonards™  to 
his  master,  "to kill  instantly?"  and  the  Indian  told  him 
where,  and  how  to  scalp.     At  night,  while  the  house- 
hold slumbers,  the   captives,  two  women  and  a  1 
each  with  a  tomahawk,  strike  vigorously,  and  fleetly, 
and  with  wise  division  of  labor,-and,  of  the  twelve 
sleepers,  ten  lie  dead;  of  one  squaw  the  wound  was 
not  mortal;  one  child  was  spared  from  design, 
love  of  glory  next  asserted  its  power;  and  the  gun  an 
tomahawk  of  the  murderer  of  her  infant,  and  a  bag 
heaped  full  with  scalps,  were   choicely  kept  as  the 
trophies  of  the  heroine.-The  streams  are  the  gu.de 
which  God  has  set  for  the  stranger  in  the  wilderne* 


* 


f-  late  summer  of  1696  I'",*       "  Eng'and' 
taken  by  D'Iberville  and  r  °f  Ptttaa^ 

£  ^ench  domini  n  Was    *T  .  T"US  "»  frontier 
f  -  ;  and  Acadia  S^j?f  'nt°  ""  ^  °f 
the  countrymen  of  De  Monts'ani  r,       ?'  SeCUred  to 
J"  the  wesf>  af(er      '0;ts  a«d  Champlain. 

™>  abandoned,  F^^T^-^^^ 
Five  Nation,,  SSfc*?  '"^  Strife  but  <vith 
treaties,  endeavored  t(^  XS       >   bj  mi'Ssi°- 
into  an   ^     InW;n'ha"d'  b^-asions,  to 
^ndred  French,  with  Ind;'"   Feb/"a^    1692,    three 
over  the  snows  against   ,1  f"  C°nfed^tes,  were  sent 
in  Upper  Cat       ^*jj  P-ties  of  the  Sen- 
8  jear,  a  larger  ^&&p-     *  the  fo,_  1693 
awks,    bent          fi?  d  the  counfj  of  the    Jan' 

,  and 


fi  were  absent;  «  the  t'h        ^  J'~f0r  the  War' 
dancing  .  wj,da  ™  «*  a  Party  of  fortj,  who 

the  invade^  thirty  men'  §  Th  battle'-a»d  victory 
had  ordered  no  qua,^        I  S°VemOr  °f  M^~ 
»'omen  and  children;   but  the  glVeD)  Unless  to 

"•ted  on  showing  mer"v  "T'f  C°nfede'ates  in. 
censures  their  hunfanTty  ?a's  L  the  French  "Dorian 
!-'  oj  Albany,  co,ec4t;--usabJe;"  for  Schuy- 

»g  the  party  as  it  reS,  W°  hundled  men,  and  pursu- 
'"any  of  the  captives.  '  SUCC6eded   in  ^^ 

Nor  did  the   Five  Nat! 

ver  western  commerce      A^rC°minUe    *«  control  ,.... 

ter  many  vacillations,  the 


190  FRONTENAC'S  LAST   BLOW   AT   THE   FIVE    NATIONS. 

CHAP,  prudence  of  the  memorable  La  Motte  Cadillac,  who 

XXI 

- — <^~  had  been  appointed  governor  at  Mackinaw,  confirmed 

1696  the  friendship  of  the  neighboring  tribes ;  and  a  party  of 
Ottawas,  Potawatomies,  and  Chippewas,  surprised  and 
routed  a  band  of  Iroquois,  returning  with  piles  of  bea- 
ver and  scalps  as  trophies. 

1696.  At  this  time,  a  messenger  from  Montreal  brought 
tidings  of  extensive  preparations  for  ravaging  the  whole 
country  of  the  Five  Nations ;  but  the  Indians  of  the 
west  would  not  rally  under  the  banner  of  Onondio; 
and  the  French  of  Canada,  aided  only  by  their  immedi- 
ate allies,  made  their  last  invasion  of  Western  New 
York.  Frontenac,  then  seventy-four  years  of  age,  him- 
self conducted  the  army:  from  Fort  Frontenac  they 

"as7  passed  over  to  Oswego,  and  occupied  both  sides  of 
that  river ;  at  night,  they  reached  the  falls  three 
leagues  above  its  mouth,  and,  by  the  light  of  bark 
torches,  they  dragged  the  canoes  and  boats  above  the 
portage.  As  they  advanced,  they  found  the  savage 
defiance,  in  two  bundles  of  reeds,  suspended  on  a  tree 
— a  sign  that  fourteen  hundred  and  thirty-four  warri- 
ors (such  was  the  number  of  reeds)  defied  them.  As 
Aug.  they  approached  the  great  village  of  the  Onondagas, 
that  nation  set  fire  to  it,  and,  by  night,  the  invaders 
beheld  the  glare  of  the  burning  wigwams.  Early  in 
A"£-  August,  the  army  encamped  near  the  Salt  Springs, 
while  a  party  was  sent  to  ravage  the  country  of  the 
Oneidas,  with  orders  to  cut  up  their  corn,  burn  their 
villages,  put  to  death  all  who  should  offer  resistance, 
and  take  six  chiefs  as  hostages.  Meantime,  an  aged 
Onondaga  captive,  who  had  refused  to  fly,  was  aban- 
doned to  the  fury  of  the  allies  of  the  French ;  and 
never  did  the  marvellous  fortitude  of  an  Indian  brave 
display  more  fully  its  character  of  passive  grandeur 


BANK  OF  ENGLAND  CHARTERED.  191 

411  the  tortures  that  more  than  four  hundred  savages  CHAP. 
could  inflict  on  the  decrepit  old  man,  extorted  from  — ^ 
him  not  one  word  of  weakness :  he  scoffed  always  at 
his  tormentors  as  the  slaves  of  those  whom  he  despised. 
On   receiving  mortal  wounds,   his  last   words   were, 
"You  should  have  taken  more  time  to  learn  how  to 
meet  death  manfully!  I  die  contented;  for  I  have  no 
cause  for  self-reproach."     Such  scenes  were  enacted 
at  Salina. 

After  these  successes  against  the  Onondagas  and 
Oneidas,  it  was  proposed  to  go  against  the  Cayugas , 
but  Frontenac  refused,  as  if  uncertain  of  the  result: 
"It  was  time  for  him  to  repose;"  and  the  army  re- 
turned to  Montreal.  He  had  humbled,  but  not  sub- 
dued, the  Five  Nations,  and  left  them  to  suffer  from  a 
famine,  yet  to  recover  their  lands  and  their  spirit, — 
having  pushed  hostilities  so  far  that  no  negotiations  for 
peace  could  easily  succeed. 

The  last  year  of  the  war  was  one  of  especial  alarm.  1697. 
as  rumor  divulged  the  purpose  of  the  French  king  to 
send  out  a  powerful  fleet  to  devastate  the  coast  of 
New  England,  and  to  conquer  New  York.  But  noth- 
ing came  of  it ;  and  the  peace  of  Ryswick  occasioned, 
at  least,  a  suspension  of  hostilities,  though  not  till  the 
English  exchequer  had  been  recruited  by  means  of  a 
great  change  in  the  internal  and  the  financial  policy 
of  England.  The  people  of  Massachusetts,  in  their 
wants,  authorized  an  emission  of  bills  on  the  faith  of 
'  the  state ;  England  accepted  from  individuals  a  loan 
of  one  and  a  half  million  pounds  sterling,  paying  for  it 
eight  per  cent,  per  annum,  and  constituting  the  sub- 
scribers to  the  loan  an  incorporated  bank  of  circulation.  1694  . 
The  measure  extorted  a  reluctant  assent  from  the 
financial  wants  of  the  government;  but,  in  its  char 


192  FRENCH    AND   ENGLISH    COLONIAL  BOUNDARIES. 

CHAP,  acter,  it  was   in  harmony  with  the  principles  of  the 

'  aristocratic   revolution   of  England.     "  It   will    make 

money  plentiful,"  said  one  of  its  projectors,  "will 
raise  the  price  of  land,  and  draw  gold  and  silver  into 
the  hands  of  the  common  people."  In  the  constitu 
tional  monarchy  of  England,  the  Bank  of  England,  a 
privileged  body,  became  the  mediator  between  the 
government  and  the  moneyed  interest. 

1697.  The  peace  of  Ryswick  was  itself  a  victory  of  the 
spirit  of  reform;  for  Louis  XIV.,  with  James  II.  at  his 
court,  recognized  the  revolutionary  sovereign  of  Eng- 
land; and  the  encroachments  of  France  on  the  Ger- 
man  empire   were   restrained.     In   America,  France 
retained  all  Hudson's  Bay,  and  all  the  places  of  which 
she  was  in  possession  at  the  beginning  of  the  war;    in 
other  words,  with  the  exception  of  the  eastern  moiety 
of  Newfoundland,  France  retained  the  whole  coast  and 
adjacent  islands,  from  Maine  to  beyond  Labrador  and 
Hudson's  Bay,  besides  Canada  and  the  valley  of  the 
Mississippi.     But  the  boundary  lines  were  reserved  as 
subjects  for  wrangling  among  commissioners. 

1698.  On  the  east,  England  claimed  to  the  St.  Croix,  and 
France  to  the  Kennebec;  and,  had  peace  continued, 
the  St.  George  would  have  been  adopted  as  a  com- 
promise. 

The  boundary  between  New  France  and  New  York 
was  still  more  difficult  to  be  adjusted.  Delius,  the 
envoy  from  New  York,  included  in  that  province  all 
the  country  of  the  Five  Nations,  and  declared  openly 
at  Montreal,  that  the  countries  at  the  west,  even 
Mackinaw,  belonged  to  England.  This  extravagant 
ambition  was  treated  with  derision:  the  French, 
moreover,  themselves  laid  claim  to  the  lands  of  the 
Five  Nations.  In  the  negotiations  for  the  restoration 


LAW  AGAJtfST  JESUITS       PEACE  RATIFIED  AT  MONTREAL.       193 

of  prisoners,  Bellamont  sought  to  obtain  an  acknowl-  CHAP 
edgment  that  the  Iroquois  were  subject  to  England ; 
but  the  count  de  Frontenac  referred  the  matter  to  the 
( ommissioners  to  be  appointed  under  the  treaty  of 
Ryswick.  "  That  the  Five  Nations  were  always  con- 
sidered  subjects  of  England,"  said  Bellamont,  "can  be 
manifested  to  all  the  world;"  but  De  Callieres,  send-  1097. 
ing  ambassadors  directly  to  Onondaga  to  regulate  the 
exchange  of  prisoners,  avoided  an  immediate  decision. 
The  Iroquois  were  proud  of  their  independence ; 
France  asserted  its  right  to  dominion ;  England 
claimed  to  be  in  possession.  Religious  sympathies 
inclined  the  nations  to  the  French,  but  commercial 
advantages  brought  them  always  into  connection  with 
the  English.  As  the  influence  of  the  Jesuits  gave  to 
France  its  only  power  over  the  Five  Nations,  the  legis- 
lature of  New  York,  in  1700,  made  a  law  for  hanging 
every  Popish  priest  that  should  come  voluntarily  into 
the  province.  "  The  law  ought  forever  to  continue  in 
force,"  is  the  commentary  of  an  historian  wholly  un-  s™*jj» 
conscious  of  the  true  nature  of  his  remark. 

After  many  collisions  and  acts  of  hostility  between  1700 
the  Iroquois  and  the  allies  of  the  French,  especially  the 
Ottawas ;  after  many  ineffectual  attempts,  on  the  part 
of  Lord  Bellamont,  to  constitute  himself  the  arbiter  of 
peace,  and  thus  to  obtain  an  acknowledged  ascenden- 
cy; the  four  upper  nations,  in  the  summer  of  1700, 
sent  envoys  to  Montreal  "to  weep  for  the  French  who 
had  died  in  the  war."  After  rapid  negotiations,  peace 
was  ratified  between  the  Iroquois,  on  the  one  side, 
and  France  and  her  Indian  allies,  on  the  other.  The 
Rat,  chief  of  the  Hurons  from  Mackinaw,  said,  "  I  lay 
down  the  axe  at  my  father's  feet ; "  and  the  deputies 
of  the  four  tribes  of  Ottawas  echoed  his  words.  The 
VOL.  in.  25 


194  FRENCH    COLONIZATION    OF    MICHIGAN. 

CHAP,  envoy  of  the  Abenakis  said,  u  I  have  no  hatchet  but 
-^v-1  that  of  my  father,  and,  since  my  father  has  buried  it, 
now  I  have  none ; "  the  Christian  Iroquois,  allies  of 
France,  assented.  A  written  treaty  was  made,  to 
which  each  nation  placed  for  itself  a  symbol ; — the 
Senecas  and  Onondagas  drew  a  spider ;  the  Cayugas 
a  calumet;  the  Oneidas  a  forked  stick;  the  Mohawks 
a  bear;  the  Hurons  a  beaver;  the  Abenakis  a  deer; 
and  the  Ottawas  a  hare.  It  was  declared,  also,  that 
war  should  cease  between  the  French  allies  and  the 
Sioux ;  that  peace  should  reach  beyond  the  Mississip 
pi.  As  to  limits  in  Western  New  York,  Callieres,  be- 
coming governor-general,  still  proposed  to  the  French 
minister  to  assert  French  jurisdiction  over  the  land  of 
the  Iroquois,  or,  at  least,  to  establish  its  neutrality. 
1701  The  question  remained  undecided,  and,  through  the 
Five  Nations,  England  shared  in  the  Indian  trade  oi 
the  west ;  but  France  kept  the  mastery  of  the  great 
lakes,  and  De  Callieres  resolved  on  founding  an  estab- 
lishment at  Detroit.  The  Five  Nations,  by  their  dep- 
uties,  remonstrated,  but  in  vain ;  and,  in  the  month  of 
June,  1701,  De  la  Motte  Cadillac,  with  a  Jesuit  mis- 
sionary  and  one  hundred  Frenchmen,  was  sent  to  take 
possession  of  Detroit.  This  is  the  oldest  permanent 
settlement  in  Michigan.  That  commonwealth  began 
to  be  colonized  before  even  Georgia ;  it  is  the  oldest, 
therefore,  of  all  the  inland  states,  except,  perhaps,  Illi- 
nois. The  country  on  the  Detroit  River  and  Lake 
St.  Clair  was  esteemed  the  loveliest  in  Canada ;  Na- 
ture had  lavished  on  it  all  her  charms — slopes  and 
prairies,  plains  and  noble  forests,  fountains  and  rivers  ; 
the  lands,  though  of  different  degrees  of  fertility,  were 
all  productive  ;  the  isles  seemed  as  if  scattered  oy  art 
to  delight  the  eye ;  the  lake  and  the  river  abounded  in 


FRENCH    COLONIZATION    OF   ILLINOIS.  195 

fish ;  the  water  was  pure  as  crystal ;  the  air  serene ;  CHAP. 
the    genial    climate,    temperate    and    giving    health,  ^^ 
charmed    the   emigrant   from    Lower  Canada.     Two 
numerous  Indian  villages  gathered  near  the  fort;  here 
were,  at  last,  the  wigwams  of  the  Hurons,  who,  from 
their  old  country,  had  fled  first  to  the  Falls  of  St.  Ma- 
ry, and  then  to  Mackinaw ;  and  above,  on  the  right, 
in  Upper  Canada,  rose  a  settlement  of  the  Ottawas, 
their  inseparable   companions. 

The  military  occupation  of  Illinois  seems  to  have 
continued,  without  interruption,  from  the  time  when  1681 
La  Salle  returned  from  Fort  Frontenac.     Joutel  found 
a  garrison  at  Fort  St.  Louis  in   1687;    in   1689,  La 
Hontan   bears    testimony  that   it   still  continued ;    in 
1696,  a  public  document  proves  its  existence,  and  the 
wish  of  Louis  XIV.  to  preserve  it  in  good  condition ; 
and  when,  in  1700,  Tonti  again  descended  the  Missis-  1700 
sippi,  he  was  attended  by  twenty  Canadian  residents 
in  Illinois. 

The  oldest  permanent  European  settlement  in  the 
valley  of  the  Mississippi,  is  the  village  of  the  Immacu- 
late Conception  of  the  Holy  Virgin,  or  Kaskaskia,  the 
seat  of  a  Jesuit  mission,  which  gradually  became  a  cen- 
tral point  of  French  colonization.  Marquette  found- 
ed the  mission  of  that  name  when  the  tribe  dwelt 
on  the  upper  waters  of  the  Illinois.  He  had  been  fol- 
lowed by  Alloiiez,  who,  in  1684,  may  have  been  at 
Rock  Fort,  but  who  was  chiefly  a  missionary  to  the 
Miamis,  among  whom  he  died.  Gravier  followed  Al- 
loiiez, but  in  what  year  is  unknown.  Sebastian  Rasles, 
after  a  short  residence  among  the  Abenakis,  received 
orders  to  visit  the  west;  and,  from  his  own  narrative,  it  R 
is  plain  that,  after  passing  a  winter  at  Mackinaw,  he, 
in  the  spring  of  1693,  repaired  to  Illinois,  where  he  re- 


FRENCH   MISSIONARIES. 

CHAP,  mained  two  years  before  exchanging  its  prairies  for  the 

'^  borders  of  the  Kennebec.    Gravier  is  famed  as  having 

been  the  first  to  ascertain  the  principles  of  the  Illi- 
nois language,  and  to  reduce  them  to  rules,  and  as 
having,  in  the  midst  of  perpetual  perils  and  oppo- 
sition from  sorcerers,  succeeded  in  transferring  the 
mission  which  Marquette  had  established  among  the 
Kaskaskias  to  the  spot  between  the  Illinois  and  Mis- 
sissippi, where  it  was  destined  to  endure. 

When  the  founder  of  Kaskaskia  was  recalled  to 
Mackinaw,  he  was  relieved  by  two  missionaries — by 
Pi  net,  who  became  the  founder  of  Cahokia,  preaching 
with  such  success,  that  his  chapel  could  not  contain 
the  multitude  that  thronged  to  him ;  and  Binnetau, 
who  left  his  mission  among  the  Abenakis  to  die  on  the 
upland  plains  of  the  Mississippi.  Having  followed 
the  tribe  to  which  he  was  attached,  in  their  July  ram- 
ble over  their  widest  hunting-grounds,—  now  stifled 
amongst  the  tall  grasses,  now  panting  with  thirst  on 
the  dry  prairies, — all  day  tortured  with  heat,  all  night 
exposed  on  the  ground  to  chilling  dews, — he  was 
seized  with  a  mortal  fever,  and  left  his  bones  on  the 
wilderness  range  of  the  buffaloes. 

Before  his  death,  and  before  Tonti  left  Illinois, 
Gabriel  Marest,  the  Jesuit, — who,  after  chanting  an 
ave  to  the  cross  among  the  icebergs  of  Hudson's  Bay, 
had  been  taken  by  the  English,  and,  on  his  liberation 
at  the  peace,  had  returned,  by  way  of  France,  to 
America, — -joined  the  mission  at  Kaskaskia.  and,  for  a 
season,  after  the  death  of  Binnetau  and  Pinet,  had  the 
sole  charge  of  it.  Very  early  in  the  eighteenth  centu- 
ry, he  was  joined  by  Mermet.  It  was  Mermet  whc 
assisted  the  commandant  Jucherau,  from  Canada,  in 
collecting  a  village  of  Indians  and  Canadians,  and  thus 
founding  the  first  French  post  on  the  Ohic^  or,  as  the 


GRAVIEE.      MAREST    VISITS    THE    PEORIAS.  197 

lower  part  of  that  river  was  then  called,  the  Wabash.  CHAP. 
But  a  contagious  disease  invaded  the  mixed  popula-  ^ — 
tion;  the  Indians,  with  extravagant  ceremonies,  sacri- 
ficed forty  dogs  to  appease  their  manitou ;  and,  when 
they  began  to  apprehend  that  the  manitou  of  the 
French  was  more  powerful  than  their  own,  the  medi- 
cine men  would  walk  round  the  fort  in  circles,  crying 
out,  "  We  are  dead :  gently,  manitou  of  the  French, 
strike  gently ;  do  not  kill  us  all.  Good  manitou,  mas- 
ter of  life  and  death,  leave  death  within  thy  coffer; 
give  life."  Thus  they  prayed;  but  the  dreadful  mor- 
tality broke  up  the  settlement. 

About  the  same  time,  Gravier  returned  to  Illinois  to 
plant  a  mission  near  Rock  Fort,  which  had  been  aban- 
doned by  Tonti.  Here  he  was  unsuccessful,  falling  a 
victim  to  the  assaults  of  the  natives ;  but,  on  the  banks 
of  the  Mississippi,  the  settlements  slowly  increased. 
The  more  hardy  services  of  the  mission  fell  to  the  lot 
of  Marest.  "Our  life,"  he  writes,  "is  passed  in 
roaming  through  thick  woods,  in  clambering  over  hills, 
in  paddling  the  canoe  across  lakes  and  rivers,  to  catch 
a  poor  savage  who  flies  from  us,  and  whom  we  can 
tame  neither  by  teachings  nor  by  caresses."  EJ^7 

In  1711,  on  Good  Friday,  Marest  started  for  the 
Peorias,  who  desired  a  new  mission.  In  two  days  he 
reached  Cahokia.  "I  departed,"  he  writes  again, 
"having  nothing  about  me  but  my  crucifix  and  my 
breviary,  being  accompanied  by  only  three  savages,  who 
might  abandon  me  from  levity,  or  from  fear  of  enemies 
might  fly.  The  horror  of  these  vast,  uninhabited  for- 
est regions,  where  in  twelve  days  not  a  soul  was  met, 
almost  took  away  all  courage.  Here  was  a  journey 
where  there  was  no  village,  no  bridge,  no  ferry,  no 
boat,  no  house,  no  beaten  path,  and  over  boundless 


198  MERMET   AT    KASKASKIA 

CJHAP.  prairies,  intersected  by  rivulets  and  rivers, — through 

forests  and   thickets  filled 'with  briers  and   thorns, — 

through  marshes,  where  we  plunged  sometimes  to  the 

girdle.     At  night,  repose  was  sought  on  the  grass,  or 

on  leaves,  exposed  to  wind  and  rain, — happy  if  by  the 

side  of  some  rivulet,  of  which  a  draught  might  quench 

LOU.    thirst.     A  meal  was  prepared  from  such  game  as  was 

a».v    killed  on  the  way,  or  by  roasting  ears  of  corn." 

The  gentle  virtues  and  fervid  eloquence  of  Mermet 
made  him  the  soul  of  the  mission  at  Kaskaskia.  At 
early  dawn,  his  pupils  came  to  church,  dressed  neatly 
and  modestly,  each  in  a  large  deer-skin,  or  in  a  robe 
stitched  together  from  several  skins.  After  receiving 
lessons,  they  chanted  canticles ;  mass  was  then  said  in 
presence  of  all  the  Christians  in  the  place,  the  French 
and  the  converts, — the  women  on  one  side,  the  men 
on  the  other.  From  prayer  and  instruction,  the  mis- 
sionaries proceeded  to  visit  the  sick  and  administer 
medicine  ;  and  their  skill  as  physicians  did  more  than 
all  the  rest  to  win  confidence.  In  the  afternoon,  the 
catechism  was  taught,  in  presence  of  the  young  and 
.(  the  old,  where  every  one,  without  distinction  of  rank 
or  age,  answered  the  questions  of  the  missionary.  At 
evening,  all  would  assemble  at  the  chapel  for  instruc- 
tion, for  prayer,  and  to  chant  the  hymns  of  the  church 
On  Sundays  and  festivals,  even  after  vespers,  a  homily 
was  pronounced  ;  at  the  close  of  the  day,  parties  would 
meet  in  the  cabins  to  recite  the  chaplet,  in  alternate 
choirs,  and  sing  psalms  into  the  night.  Their  psalms 
were  often  homilies,  with  the  words  set  to  familiar 
tunes.  Saturday  and  Sunday  were  the  days  appoint- 
ed for  confession  and  communion,  and  every  convert 
confessed  once  in  a  fortnight.  The  success  of  the 
mission  was  such,  that  marriages  of  the  French  emi- 


LEMOINE    D'IBERVILLE.  199 

grants  were  sometimes  solemnized  with  the  daughters  CHAP. 

XXI 

of  the  Illinois  according  to  the  rites  of  the  Catholic  — *-* 
church.     The  occupation  of  the  territory  was  a  can- 
tonment of  Europeans  among   the   native  proprietors 
of  the  forests  and  prairies. 

Jesuits  and  fur-traders  were  the  founders  of  Illinois; 
Louis  XIV.  and  privileged  companies  were  the  patrons 
of  Southern  Louisiana:  but  the  honor  of  beginning  the 

7  o  O 

work  of  colonization  in  the  south-west  of  oar  republic 
belongs  to  the  illustrious  Canadian,  Lemoine  D'lber- 
ville.  Present,  as  a  volunteer,  in  the  midnight  attack 
upon  Schenectady,  where  he  was  chiefly  remembered 
for  an  act  of  clemency;  at  Port  Nelson,  calm  amidst 
the  crash  of  icebergs  in  which  his  vessels  had  become 
involved,  and,  though  exceedingly  moved  by  the  loss 
of  his  young  brother  in  a  skirmish  with  the  English, 
yet,  with  marvellous  firmness,  preserving  his  counte-  ^k 
nance  without  a  sign  of  disquiet, — putting  his  whole 
trust  in  God,  and,  with  tranquil  daring,  making  a  con- 
quest of  the  fort  which  controls  the  vast  Indian  com- 
merce of  the  wide  regions  of  Nelson  River;  the  captor 
of  Pemaquid;  the  successful  invader  of  the  English 
possessions  on  Newfoundland;  and  again,  in  1697,  in 
spite  of  icebergs  and  a  shipwreck,  victorious  in  naval 
contests  on  the  gloomy  waters  of  Hudson's  Bay,  and 
recognized  as  the  most  skilful  naval  officer  in  the  ser- 
vice of  France ; — he,  the  idol  of  his  Canadian  coun- 
trymen, ever  buoyant  and  brave,  after  the  peace  of 
Ryswick,  sought  and  obtained  a  commission  for  estab- 
lishing direct  maritime  intercourse  between  France 
and  the  Mississippi. 

On  the  seventeenth  day  of  October,  1698,  two  frig-  1698 
ates,  and  two  smaller  vessels,  with  a  company  of  ma- 
rines, and  about  two  hundred  settlers,  including  a  fcw 


200  FRENCH    COLONIZATION    OF    LOUISIANA. 

CHAP,  women  and  children, — most  of  the  men  being  disband- 

'  ed  Canadian  soldiers, — embarked  for  the  Mississippi, 

1698,  which,  as  yet,  had  never  been  entered  from  the  sea. 
Happier  thari  La  Salle,  the  leader  of  the  enterprise 
won  confidence  and  affection  every  where :  the  gov- 
Dec.  ernor  of  St.  Domingo  gave  him  a  welcome,  and  bore 
a  willing  testimony  to  his  genius  and  his  good  judg- 
ment. A  larger  ship  of  war  from  that  station  joined 
1699  the  expedition,  which,  in  January,  1699,  caught  a 
glimpse  of  the  continent,  and  anchored  before  the 
Island  St.  Rose.  On  the  opposite  shore,  the  fort  of 
Pensacola  had  just  been  established  by  three  hundred 
Spaniards  from  Vera  Cruz.  This  prior  occupation  is 
the  reason  why,  afterwards,  Pensacola  remained  a  part 
of  Florida,  and  the  dividing  line  between  that  province 
and  Louisiana  was  drawn  between  the  bays  of  Pensa- 
cola and  Mobile.  Obedient  to  his  orders,  and  to  the 
maxims  of  the  mercantile  system,  the  governor  of  Pen- 
sacola would  allow  no  foreign  vessel  to  enter  the  har- 
bor. Sailing  to  the  west,  D'Iberville  cast  anchor 
south-south-east  of  the  eastern  point  of  Mobile,  and 
landed  on  Massacre,  or,  as  it  was  rather  called,  Dau- 
phine  Island.  The  water  between  Ship  and  Horn 
Islands  being  found  too  shallow,  the  larger  ship  from 
the  station  of  St.  Domingo  returned,  and  the  frigates 
anchored  near  the  groups  of  the  Chandeleur,  while 
D'Iberville  with  his  people  erected  huts  on  Ship 
Island,  and  made  the  discovery  of  the  River  Pasca- 
goula  and  the  tribes  of  Biloxi.  The  next  day,  a  party 
of  Bayagoulas,  from  the  Mississippi,  passed  by:  they 
were  warriors  returning  from  an  inroad  into  the  land 
of  the  Indians  of  Mobile. 

Feb.        In  two  barges,  D'Iberville  and  his  brother  Bienville, 
with  a  Franciscan,  who  had  been  a  companion  to  La 


D'IBERVILLE'S    FORT    ON    THE    BAY    OF    BILOXI.  201 

Salle,  and  with  forty-eight  men,  set  forth  to  seek  the  CHAP 
Mississippi.  Floating  trees,  and  the  turbid  aspect  of  - — - 
the  waters,  guided  to  its  mouth.  On  the  second  1699 
day  in  March,  they  entered  the  mighty  river,  and  as- 
cended to  the  village  of  the  Bayagoulas — a  tribe  which 
then  dwelt  on  its  western  bank,  just  below  the  River 
Iberville,  worshipping,  it  was  said,  an  opossum  for 
their  manitou,  and  preserving  in  their  temple  an  undy- 
ing fire.  There  they  found  a  letter  from  Tonti  to  La 
Salle,  written  in  1684,  and  safely  preserved  by  the 
wondering  natives.  The  Oumas  also  were  visited ; 
and  the  party  probably  saw  the  great  bend  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Red  River.  A  parish  and  a  bayou,  that 
bear  the  name  of  Iberville,  mark  the  route  of  his  return, 
through  the  lakes  which  he  named  Maurepas  and  Pont- 
chartrain,  to  the  bay  which  he  called  St.  Louis.  At 
the  head  of  the  Bay  of  Biloxi,  on  a  sandy  shore,  under 
a  burning  sun,  he  erected  the  fort  which,  with  its  four  May 
bastions  and  twelve  cannon,  was  to  be  the  sign  of 
French  jurisdiction  over  the  territory  from  near  the 
Rio  del  Norte  to  the  confines  of  Pensacola.  While 
D'Iberville  himself  sailed  for  France,  his  two  brothers,  May  9 
Sauvolle  and  Bienville,  were  left  in  command  of  the 
station,  round  which  the  few  colonists  were  planted. 
Thus  began  the  commonwealth  of  Mississippi.  Pros- 
perity was  impossible ;  hope  could  not  extend  beyond 
a  compromise  with  the  Spaniards  on  its  flank,  and  the 
Indian  tribes  around, — with  the  sands,  which  it  was 
vain  to  till,  and  the  burning  sun,  that  may  have  made 
the  emigrants  sigh  for  the  cool  breezes  of  Hudson's 
Bay.  Yet  there  were  gleams  of  light :  the  white  men 
from  Carolina,  allies  of  the  Chickasas,  invaded  the 
neighboring  tribes  of  Indians,  making  it  easy  for  the 
French  to  establish  alliances.  Missionaries,  also,  had 
VOL.  in.  26 


202  HENNEPIN.       THE    ENGLISH    EXPEDITION    RETURNS, 

CHAP,  already  conciliated  the  good  will  of  remoter  nations ; 

— *^  and  from  the  Taensas  and  the  Yazoos,  Davion — whose 
name  belonged  of  old  to  the  rock  now  called  Fort  Ad- 
ams— and  Montigny  floated  down  the  Mississippi  to 
visit  their  countrymen.  Already  a  line  of  communica- 
tion existed  between  Quebec  and  the  Gulf  of  Mexico. 
The  boundless  southern  region — made  a  part  of  the 
French  empire  by  lilies  carved  on  forest  trees,  or 
crosses  erected  on  bluffs,  and  occupied  by  French  mis- 
sionaries and  forest  rangers — was  annexed  to  the  com- 
mand of  the  governor  of  Biloxi. 

During  the  absence  of  D'Iberville,  it  became  ap- 
parent that  England  was  jealous  of  his  enterprise. 
Already  Hennepin  had  been  taken  into  the  pay  of 

1698.  William    III.,  and    had  published   his  new  work,  in 
which,  to  bar  the  French  claim  of  discovery,  he  had, 
with   impudent   falsehood,    claimed    to   have  himself 
first  descended  the  Mississippi,  and  had  interpolated 
into  his  former  narrative  a  journal  of  his  pretended 
voyage  down  the  river.     This  had  been  published  in 
London  at  the  very  moment  when  the  fort  at  Biloxi 

1699.  was  in  progress;  and,  at  once,  an  exploring  expedition, 
under  the  auspices  of  Coxe,  a  proprietor  of  New  Jer- 
sey, sought  also  for  the  mouths  of  the  Mississippi. 
When  Bienville,  who  passed  the  summer  in  exploring 
the  forks  below  the  site  of  New  Orleans,  descended 
the  river,  he  met  an  English  ship  of  sixteen  guns,  com- 
manded by  Barr, — one  of  two  vessels  which  had  been 
sent  to  sound  the  passes  of  the  majestic  stream.     Giv- 
ing heed  to  the  assertion  of  Bienville  of  French  su- 
premacy,   as    proved  by   French   establishments,    the 
English    captain  turned  back ;    and  the  bend  in  the 
river  which  was  the  scene  of  the  interview  was  named, 
and  is  still  called,  English  Turn. 


FRANCE    EXCLUDES    ENGLAND    FROM    LOUISIANA.  203 

Thus  failed  the  vast  project  of  Coxe  to  possess  CHAP. 
what  he  styled  the  English  province  of  Carolana.  But  — v^- 
Hennepin — who,  had  he  but  loved  truth,  would  have 
gained  a  noble  reputation,  and  who  now  is  remem- 
bered, not  merely  as  a  light-hearted,  ambitious,  daring 
discoverer,  but  also  as  a  boastful  liar — had  had  an  au- 
dience of  William  III. ;  a  memorial  from  Coxe  was 
also  presented  to  King  William  in  council,  and  the 
members  were  unanimous  in  the  opinion,  that  the  set- 
tling of  the  banks  of  the  Mississippi  should  be  encour- 
aged. "I  will  leap  over  twenty  stumbling-blocks, 
rather  than  not  effect  it,"  said  William  of  Orange ;  and  c*r°la- 
he  often  assured  the  proprietor  of  his  willingness  to  send 
over,  at  his  own  cost,  several  hundred  Huguenot  and 
Vaudois  refugees.  But  England  W7as  never  destined 
to  acquire  more  than  a  nominal  possession  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi; nor  could  Spain  do  more  than  protest  against  1700. 
what  it  regarded  as  a  dismemberment  of  the  gov- 
ernment of  Mexico.  France  obtained,  under  Provi- 
dence, the  guardianship  of  Louisiana,  not,  as  it  proved, 
for  its  own  benefit,  but  rather  as  the  trustee  for  the  in- 
fant nation  by  which  it  was  one  day  to  be  inherited. 

It  was  at  this  time  that  Bienville  received  the  me-  1699. 
mortal  of  French   Protestants  to   be   allowed,   under 
French  sovereignty,  and  in  the  enjoyment  of  freedom 
of  conscience,  to  plant  the  banks  of  the  Mississippi. 
"The  king,"  answered  Pontchartrain  at  Paris,  "has 
not  driven  Protestants  from  France  to  make  a  republic 
of  them  in  America ;  "  and  D'Iberville  returned  from    Df°' 
Europe  with  projects  far  unlike  the  peaceful  pursuits 
of  agriculture.     First  came  the  occupation  of  the  Mis-  1T00< 
sissippi,  by  a  fortress  built  on  its  bank,  on  a  point  ele-     17. 
vated  above  the  marshes,  not  far  from  the  sea,  soon  lo 
!>e  abandoned.     In  February,  Tonti  came  down  from 


204  VAIN  SEARCH  AFTER  GOLD 

CHAP  the    Illinois;  and,  under   his   guidance,  the   brothers 

^>~  D'Iberville  and  Bienville  ascended  the  Great  River, 

1700.  an(j  mac|e  peace  between  the  Oumas  and  the  Baya- 

goulas.     Among  the  Natchez,  the  Great  Sun,  followed 

by  a  large  retinue  of  his  people,  welcomed  the  illustri- 

ous strangers.     His  country  seemed  best  suited  to  a 

settlement;   a   bluff,    now   known    as   Natchez,  was 

selected  for  a  town,  and,  in  honor  of  the  countess  of 

Pontchartrain,  was  called  Rosalie. 

While  D'Iberville  descended  to  his  ships,  soon  to  em- 
bark for  France,  his  brother,  in  March,  explored  West- 
ern Louisiana,  and,  crossing  the  Red  River,  approached 
New  Mexico.  No  tidings  of  exhaustless  wealth  were 
gleaned  from  the  natives;  no  mines  of  unparalleled 
productiveness  were  discovered  among  the  troublesome 
morasses  ;  and  St.  Denys,  with  a  motley  group  of 
Canadians  and  Indians,  was  sent  to  ramble  for  six 
months  in  the  far  west,  that  he  might  certainly  find  the 
land  of  gold.  In  April,  Le  Sueur  led  a  company,  in 
quest  of  mineral  stores,  to  mountains  in  our  north- 
western territory.  Passing  beyond  the  Wisconsin,  be- 
yond the  Chippewa,  beyond  the  St.  Croix,  he  sailed 
La  north  till  he  reached  the  mouth  of  the  St.  Peter's,  and 
L^F»8  ^  not  Pause  till?  entering  that  river,  he  came  to  the 
BEx?"d  confluence  of  the  Blue  Earth.  There,  in  a  fort  among 


Martin.  lowas,  he  passed  the  winter,  that  he  might  take  pos- 

- 


Charle- 


.  r  .  ,  ,  f  . 

session  of  a  copper  mine,  and,  on  the  return  of  spring, 
fill  his  boats  with  heaps  of  ore. 

1701        Le   Sueur   had  not  yet  returned  to  Biloxi,   when 

3of    news  came  from  the  impatient  ministry  of  impover- 

ished France,  that  certainly  there  were  gold  mines  on 

the  Missouri.     But  bilious    fevers  sent  death  among 

the  dreamers  about  veins  of  precious  metals  and  rocks 

r     i 

•a,    of  emerald.     Sauvolle  was  an  early  victim,  leaving  the 


LOUISIANA   AT    THE    DEATH    OF    D'IBERVILLE.  205 

chief  command  to  the  .youthful  Bienville ;    and  great  CHAP 
havock  was  made  among  the  colonists,  who  were  de-  ^-v^ 
pendent  on  the  Indians  for  baskets  of  corn,  and  were 
saved  from  famine  by  the  chase  and  the  net  and  line. 
The  Choctas  and  the  Mobile  Indians  desired  an   alli- 
ance against  the  Chickasas,  and  the  French  were  too 
weak    to   act,    except    as    mediators.     In    December, 
D'Iberville,  arriving  with   reinforcements,  found  but 
one  hundred  and  fifty  alive. 

Early  in  1702,  the  chief  fortress  of  the  French  was  1702 
transferred  from  Biloxi  to  the  western  bank  of  the 
Mobile  River,  the  first  settlement  of  Europeans  in 
Alabama ;  and,  during  the  same  season,  though  Dau- 
phine  Island  was  very  flat,  and  covered  with  sands 
which  sustained  no  grasses,  and  hardly  nourished  a 
grove  of  pines,  its  excellent  harbor  was  occupied  as  a 
convenient  station  for  ships.  Such  was  Louisiana  in 
the  days  of  its  founder.  Attacked  by  the  yellow  fever, 
D'Iberville  escaped  with  his  life,  but  his  health  was 
broken ;  and,  though  he  gained  strength  to  render  ser- 
vice to  France  in  1706,  the  effort  was  followed  by  a 
severe  illness,  which  terminated  in  his  death  at  the  j™  9 
Havana.  In  him  the  colonies  and  the  French  navy  wiute* 

J      Recopi- 

lost  a  hero  worthy  of  their  regret.  But  Louisiana,  at  JJCJJJ; 
his  departure,  was  little  more  than  a  wilderness  daimed  1702 
in  behalf  of  the  French  king ;  in  its  whole  borders, 
there  were  scarcely  thirty  families.  The  colonists  were 
unwise  in  their  objects,  searching  for  pearls,  for  the 
wool  of  the  buffalo,  for  productive  mines.  Their 
scanty  number  was  scattered  on  discoveries,  or  among 
the  Indians  in  quest  of  furs.  There  was  no  quiet  ag- 
ricultural industry.  Of  the  lands  that  were  occupied, 
he  coast  of  Biloxi  is  as  sandy  as  the  deserts  of  Lybia ; 
the  soil  on  Dauphine  Island  is  meagre :  on  the  delta 


206  THE    SPANISH    SUCCESSION.      QUEEN    ANNE'S    WAR. 

CHAP,  of  the  Mississippi,  where  a  fort  had  been  built,  Bien- 

~  ville  and  his  few  soldiers  were  insulated  and  unhappy, 

at  the  mercy  of  the  rise  of  waters  in  the  river;  and 
the  buzz  and  sting  of  mosquitoes,  the  hissing  of  the 
snakes,  the  croakings  of  the  frogs,  the  cries  of  alliga- 
tors, seemed  to  claim  that  the  country  should  still,  for 
a  generation,  be  the  inheritance  of  reptiles, — while,  at 
the  fort  of  Mobile,  the  sighing  of  the  pines,  and  the 
hopeless  character  of  the  barrens,  warned  the  emigrants 
to  seek  homes  farther  within  the  land. 

But,  at  least,  the  Spaniards  at  Pensacola  were  no 
longer  hostile ;  Spain,  as  well  as  France,  had  fallen 
under  the  sovereignty  of  the  Bourbons ;  and,  after  in- 
effectual treaties  for  a  partition  of  the  Spanish  mon- 
archy, all  Europe  was  kindling  into  wars,  to  preserve 
the  balance  of  power,  or  to  refute  the  doctrine  of  legit- 
imacy. This  is  the  period  when  Spain  became  inti- 
mately involved  in  our  destinies;  and  she  long  re- 
mained, like  France,  the  enemy  to  our  fathers  as  sub- 
jects of  England — the  friend  to  their  independence. 

The  liberties  of  the  provinces,  of  the  military  corpo- 
rations, of  the  cities,  of  Spain,  had  gradually  become 
merged  in  despotism.  The  position  of  the  peninsula, 
separated  from  Europe  by  a  chain  of  mountains,  and 
intersected  by  high  ridges,  had  not  favored  the  spirit 
of  liberal  inquiry;  and  the  inquisition  had  so  manacled 
the  national  intelligence,  that  the  country  of  Cervantes 
and  Calderon  had  relapsed  into  inactivity.  The  con- 
test against  the  Arabs  had  been  a  struggle  of  Catholic 
Christianity  against  Moslem  theism,  and,  as  it  had 
been  continued  for  seven  centuries  with  inexorable 
consistency,  had  given  to  Spanish  character  the  aspect 
of  exclusiveness,  which  was  heightened  by  the  tranquil 
pride  consequent  on  success.  France  had  amalga- 


THE    SPANISH    SUCCESSION.      QUEEN    ANNE  S    WAR.  207 

mated  provinces ;  Spain  had  to  deal  with  nations :  CHAP. 
France  had  triumphed  over  sovereignties,  and  Spain  *• — ^ 
over  religions. 

But  Spain  was  not  only  deficient  in  active  intelli- 
gence, and  in  toleration ;  she  also  had  lost  men. 
From  Ferdinand  the  Catholic  to  Philip  III.,  she  had 
expelled  three  millions  of  Jews  and  Moors;  her  infe- 
rior nobility  emigrated  to  America:  in  1702,  her  census 
enumerated  less  than  seven  million  souls.  The  nation 
that  once  would  have  invaded  England,  had  no  navy; 
and,  having  the  mines  of  Mexico  and  South  America, 
it  needed  subscriptions  for  its  defence.  Foreigners,  by 
means  of  loans  and  mortgages,  gained  more  than  seven 
eighths  of  the  wealth  from  America,  and  furnished 
more  than  nine  tenths  of  the  merchandise  shipped  for 
the  colonies.  Spanish  commerce  had  expired;  Span- 
ish manufactures  had  declined ;  even  agriculture  had 
fallen  a  victim  to  mortmains  and  privilege.  Inactivity 
was  followed  by  poverty ;  and  the  dynasty  itself  be- 
came  extinct. 

If  the  doctrine  of  legitimacy  were  to  be  recognized 
as  of  divine  origin,  and  therefore  paramount  to  treaties, 
the  king  of  France  could  claim  for  his  own  family  the 
inheritance  of  Spain.  That  claim  had  been  sanctioned 
by  the  testament  of  the  last  Spanish  king,  and  was  de- 
sired by  the  Spanish  people,  of  whom  the  anger  had  been 
roused  by  the  attempts  at  partition.  To  the  crown  of 
Spain  belonged  the  Low  Countries,  the  Milanese,  and 
the  Two  Sicilies,  besides  its  world  in  the  Indies ;  and 
the  union  of  so  many  states  in  the  family  of  the  Bour- 
bons might  rouse  Spain  from  its  atrophy,  but  seemed 
to  threaten  the  freedom  of  Europe,  and  to  secure  to 
France  co  onial  supremacy.  William  III.  resolved  on 
;var.  Ever  true  to  his  ruling  passion  for  the  liberty 


208  THE    SPANISH    SUCCESSION.      QUEEN    ANNE'S    WAR. 

CHAP,  of  Holland  against  France ;  persevering  in  it  in  opposi- 

^v~  tion  to  his  ministry  and  parliament ;  in  the  last  year  of 

1702  hjs  jjf6)  suffering  from  a  mortal  disease, — with  swollen 
feet,  voice  extinguished ;  too  infirm  to  receive  visits ; 
alone,  separate  from  the  world,  at  the  castle  of  St.  Loo; 

jerM.  he  still  rallied  new  alliances,  governed  the  policy  of 
Europe,  and,  as  to  territory,  shaped  the  destinies  of 

1701.  America.  In  the  midst  of  negotiations,  James  II.  died 
18.  at  St.  Germain ;  and  Louis  roused  the  nationality  of 
England  by  recognizing  the  son  of  the  royal  exile  as 
the  legitimate  king  of  Great  Britain.  Thus  the  war 
for  the  balance  of  power,  for  colonial  territory,  and  foi 
commercial  advantages,  became  also  a  war  of  opinion, 
in  which  England  vindicated  the  independence  of  na- 
tional power. 

1702  Louis  XIV.  was  an  old  man,  and  the  men  of  energy 
in  his  cabinet  and  his  army  were  gone.  There  was  no 
Colbert,  to  put  order  into  the  finances ;  no  Louvois,  by 
his  savage  resoluteness,  to  inspire  terror:  Luxemburgh 
was  dead,  and  the  wise  Catinat  no  more  a  favorite. 
Long  wars  had  enfeebled  agriculture,  and  had  exhaust- 
ed the  population ;  and  the  excess  of  royal  vanity  in- 
sured defeat ;  for  the  monarch  expected  victory  to  obey 
his  orders,  and  genius  to  start  into  action  from  his 
choice.  Two  years  passed  without  reverses ;  but  the 

1704  battle  of  Blenheim,  fatal  to  the  military  reputation  of 
France,  revealed  the  exhaustion  of  the  kingdom.  The 
armies  of  Louis  XIV.  were  opposed  by  troops  collected 
from  England,  the  Empire,  Holland,  Savoy,  Portugal, 
Denmark,  Prussia,  and  Lorraine,  led  on  by  Eugene 
and  Marlborough,  who,  completing  the  triumvirate 
with  the  grand  pensionary  Heinsius,  combined  in 
their  service  money,  numbers,  forethought,  and  mil- 
itary genius. 


SOUTH    CAROLINA.  209 

In  North  America,  the  central  colonies  of  our  repub-  CHAP. 
lie  scarce  knew  the  existence  of  war,  except  as  they  ----  - 
were  invited  to  aid  in  defending  the  borders,  or  were  1702 
sometimes   alarmed  at  a  privateer  hovering  off  their 
coast.     The  Five  Nations,  at  peace  with  both  France 
and  England,  protected  New  York  by  a  mutual  com- 
pact   of  neutrality.      South    Carolina,    bordering    on 
Spanish  Florida  ;  New  England,  which  had  so  often 
conquered  Acadia,  and   coveted  the  fisheries  ;    were 
alone  involved  in  the  direct  evils  of  war. 

South  Carolina  began  colonial  hostilities.     Its  gov-  1702. 
ernor,  James  Moore,  by  the  desire  of  the  commons,    ge£ 
placed  himself  at  the  head  of  an  expedition  for  the  KSJ 
reduction  of  St.  Augustine.     The  town  was  easily  rav-    MarL 

J  ton,  in 

aged  ;  but  the  garrison  retreated  to  the  castle,  and  the 
besiegers  waited  the  arrival  of  heavy  artillery.  To  ob- 
tain it,  a  sloop  was  sent  to  Jamaica  ;  but  an  emissary 
had  already  announced  the  danger  to  Bienville,  at  Mo- 
bile, who  conveyed  the  intelligence  to  the  Spanish 
viceroy;  and,  when  two  Spanish  vessels  of  war  ap- 
peared near  the  mouth  of  the  harbor,  Moore  aban- 
doned his  ships  and  stores,  and  retreated  by  land. 
The  colony,  burdened  with  debt,  pleaded  the  prece- 
dent "  of  great  and  rich  countries,"  and,  confident  that 
"funds  of  credit  have  fully  answered  the  ends  of 
money,  and  given  the  people  a  quick  circulation  of 
their  trade  and  cash,"  issued  bills  of  credit  to  the 
amount  of  six  thousand  pounds.  To  Carolina,  the  ^ 
first  fruits  of  war  were  debt  and  paper  money. 

This  ill  success  diminished  the  terror  of  the  Indians. 
The  Spaniards  had  long  occupied  the  country  on  the 
Bay  of  Appalache;  had  gathered  the  natives  into 
towns,  built  for  them  churches,  and  instructed  them 
by  missions  of  Franciscan  priests.  The  traders  of 
VOL.  in.  27 


SS. 


210  QUEEN   ANNE'S    WAR. 

CHAP.  Carolina  beheld  with   alarm   the   continuous  line   of 

XXI. 

communication  from  St.  Augustine  to  the  incipient  set- 
tlements in  Louisiana;  and,  in  the  last  weeks  of  1705, 
Mar*  a  company  of  fifty  volunteers,  under  the  command 
of  Moore,  and  assisted  by  a  thousand  savage  allies, 
roamed  through  the  woods  by  the  trading  path  across 
Ws»^  tne  Ocmulgce,  descended  through  the  regions  which 
Sixain,  none  but  De  Soto  had  invaded,  and  came  upon  the  In- 
uoi»'ert8>  diaii  towns  near  the  port  of  St.  Mark's.  There  seems 

Florida, 

w'lis;  no  reason  to  doubt  that  the  inhabitants  spoke  a  dialect 
H^fau.  of  the  language  of  the  Muskhogees.  They  had  already 
learned  the  use  of  horses  and  of  beeves,  which  multi- 
plied without  care  in  their  groves.  At  sunrise,  on  the 
fourteenth  of  December,  the  bold  adventurers  reached 
the  strong  place  of  Ayavalla.  Beaten  back  from  the 
assault  with  loss,  they  succeeded  in  setting  fire  to  the 
church,  which  adjoined  the  fort.  A  "  barefoot  friar,"  the 
only  white  man,  came  forward  to  beg  mercy;  more  than 
a  hundred  women  and  children,  and  more  than  fifty 
warriors,  were  taken  and  kept  as  prisoners  for  the  slave 

15.  market.  On  the  next  morning,  the  Spanish  commander 
on  the  bay,  with  twenty-three  soldiers  and  four  hun- 
dred Indians,  gave  battle,  and  was  defeated ;  but  the 
Spanish  fort  was  too  strong  to  be  carried  by  storm. 

17.  The  tawny  chief  of  Ivitachma  "compounded  for  peace 
with  the  plate  of  his  church  and  ten  horses  laden  with 
provisions."  Five  other  towns  submitted  without  con- 
ditions. Most  of  their  people  abandoned  their  homes, 
arid  were  received  as  free  emigrants  into  the  jurisdic- 
tion of  Carolina.  Thus  was  St.  Augustine  insulated 
by  the  victory  over  its  allies.  The  Creeks,  that  dwelt 
between  Appalache  and  Mobile,  being  friends  to  Caro- 
lina, interrupted  the  communication  with  the  French. 
The  English  flag  having  been  carried  triumphantly 


SOUTH    CAROLINA.      MASSACHUSETTS  211 

through  the  wilderness  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  the  sav-  CHAP. 
ages  were  overawed ;  and  Great  Britain  established  a  ^-^ 
new  claim  to  the  central  forests  that  were  soon  to  be 
named  Ge'orgia. 

In  the  next  year,  a  French  squadron  from  the  Ha-  1706. 
vana  attempted  revenge  by  an  invasion  of  Charleston; 
but  the  brave  William  Rhett  and  the  governor,  Sir 
Nathaniel  Johnson,  inspired  courage,  and  prepared 
defence.  The  Huguenots,  also,  panted  for  action. 
One  of  the  French  ships  was  taken  ;  and,  wherever  a 
landing  was  effected,  the  enemy  was  attacked  with 
such  energy  that,  of  eight  hundred,  three  hundred 
were  killed  or  taken  prisoners.  The  colonists  fought 
like  brave  men  contending  for  their  families  and  homes. 
Unaided  by  the  proprietaries,  South  Carolina  gloriously 
defended  her  territory,  and,  with  very  little  loss,  re- 
pelled the  invaders.  The  result  of  the  war  at  the 
south  was  evidently  an  extension  of  the  English 
boundary  far  into  the  territory  that  Spain  had 
esteemed  as  a  portion  of  Florida. 

At  the  north,  the  province  of  Massachusetts  alone 
was  desolated :  for  her,  the  history  of  the  war  is  but  a 
catalogue  of  misery.  The  marquis  de  Vaudreuil,  now 
governor  of  Canada,  made  haste  to  conciliate  the  Iro- 
quois.  A  treaty  of  neutrality  with  the  Senecas  was 
commemorated  by  two  strings  of  wampum  :  to  prevent 
the  rupture  of  this  happy  agreement,  he  resolved  to 
send  no  war  parties  against  the  English  on  the  side  of 
New  York. 

The  English, were  less  successful  in  their  plans  of  1703- 
neutrality  with  the  Abenakis.     A  congress  of  chiefs, 
from  the  Merrimac  to  the  Penobscot,  met   Governor 
Dudley  at  Casco:  "The  sun,"  said  they,  "is  not  more 
distant  from  the  earth,  than  our  thoughts  from  war;" 


low 


212     .  QUEEN    ANNE'S    WAR. 

CHAP,  and,  giving  the  belt  of  wampum,  they  added  new  stones 
*— ^  to  the  two  piles  which  had  been  raised  as  memorials 
1703.  of  friendship.  Yet,  within  six  weeks,  the  whole  coun- 
try from  Casco  to  Wells  was  in  a  conflagration.  On 
one  and  the  same  day,  the  several  parties  of  the  In- 
dians, with  the  French,  burst  upon  every  house  or  gar- 
rison in  that  region,  sparing,  says  the  faithful  chroni- 
cler, "  neither  the  milk-white  brows  of  the  ancient,  nor 
the  mournful  cries  of  tender  infants."  Cruelty  became 
an  art,  and  honor  was  awarded  to  the  most  skilful  con- 
triver of  tortures.  The  prowling  Indian  seemed  near 
every  farm-house ;  many  an  individual  was  suddenly 
snatched  away  into  captivity.  If  armed  men,  rousing 
for  the  attack,  penetrated  to  the  fastnesses  of  their 
roving  enemy,  they  found  nothing  but  solitudes. 
704.  Death  hung  on  the  frontier.  The  farmers,  that  had 
built  their  dwellings  on  the  bank  just  above  the  beau- 
tiful meadows  of  Deerfield,  had  surrounded  with  pick- 
ets an  enclosure  of  twenty  acres — the  village  citadel. 
There  were  separate  dwelling-houses,  also  fortified  by 
a  circle  of  sticks  of  timber  set  upright  in  the  ground. 
Their  occupants  knew,  through  the  Mohawks,  that 
danger  was  at  hand.  All  that  winter,  there  was  not  a 
night  but  the  sentinel  was  abroad  ;  not  a  mother  lulled 
her  infant  to  rest,  but  knew  that,  before  morning,  the 
tomahawk  might  crush  its  feeble  skull.  The  snow  lay 
four  feet  deep,  when  the  clear,  invigorating  air  of  mid- 
Pcb.  winter  cheered  the  war  party  of  about  two  hundred 
French  and  one  hundred  and  forty-two  Indians,  who, 
with  the  aid  of  snow-shoes,  and  led  by  Hertel  de  Rou- 
ville,  had  walked  on  the  crust  all  the  way  from  Cana- 
da. On  the  last  night  in  February,  a  pine  forest  near 
Deerfield  gave  them  shelter  till  after  midnight.  When, 
at  the  approach  of  morning,  the  unfaithful  sentinels 


BURNING    OF    DEERF1ELD. 

retired,  the  war  party  entered  within  the  palisades,  CHAP. 

which   drifts    of  snow   had   made   useless;    and  the  - 

war-whoop  of  the  savages  bade  each  family  prepare  l704- 
for  captivity  or  death.  The  village  was  set  on  fire, 
arid  all  but  the  church  and  one  dwelling-house  were 
consumed.  Of  the  inhabitants,  but  few  escaped: 
forty-seven  were  killed ;  one  hundred  and  twelve, 
including  the  minister  and  his  family,  were  made 
captives.  One  hour  after  sunrise,  the  party  began 
its  return  to  Canada.  But  who  would  know  the 
horrors  of  that  winter  march  through  the  wilderness? 
Two  men  starved  to  death.  Did  a  young  child  weep 
from  fatigue,  or  a  feeble  woman  totter  from  anguish 
under  the  burden  of  her  own  offspring,  the  tomahawk 
stilled  complaint,  or  the  helpless  infant  was  cast  out  up- 
on the  snow.  Eunice  Williams,  the  wife  of  the  minis- 
ter, had  not  forgotten  her  Bible;  and,  when  they  rested 
by  the  way-side,  or,  at  night,  made  their  couch  of 
branches  of  evergreen  strown  on  the  snow,  the  savages 
allowed  her  to  read  it.  Having  but  recently  recovered 
from  confinement,  her  strength  soon  failed.  To  her 
husband,  who  reminded  her  of  the  "  house  not  made 
with  hands,  eternal  in  the  heavens,"  "  she  justified  God 
in  what  had  happened."  The  mother's  heart  rose  to 
her  lips,  as  she  commended  her  five  captive  children, 
under  God,  to  their  father's  care ;  and  then  one  blow 
from  a  tomahawk  ended  her  sorrows.  "  She  rests  in 
peace,"  said  her  husband,  "and  joy  unspeakable  and 
lull  of  glory."  In  Canada,  no  entreaties,  no  offers  of 
ransom,  could  rescue  his  youngest  daughter,  then  a  girl 
of  but  seven  years  old.  Adopted  into  the  village  of  the 
praying  Indians  near  Montreal,  she  became  a  prose  yte 
to  the  Catholic  faith,  and  the  wife  of  a  Cahnewaga 
chief;  and  -when,  after  long  years,  she  visited  her 
friends  at  Deerfield,  she  appeared  in  an  Indian  dress : 


214  QUEEN    ANNE'S    WAR. 

CHAP,  and,  after  a  short  sojourn,  in  spite  of  a  day  of  fast  of 
— ^  a  whole  village,  which  assembled  to  pray  for  her  deliv- 
erance, she  returned  to  the  fires  of  her  own  wigwam, 
and  to  the  love  of  her  own  Mohawk  children. 

There  is  no  tale  to  tell  of  battles  like  those  of  Blen- 
heim or  of  Ramillies,  but  only  one  sad  narrative  of  ru- 
1705   ral  dangers  and  sorrows.     In  the  following  years,  the 
I7Q7    Indians  stealthily  approached  towns  in  the  heart  of 
Massachusetts,   as   well    as  along   the   coast,  and    OD 
the  southern  and  western  frontiers.     Children,  as  they 
gamboled  on  the  beach;  reapers,  as  they  gathered  the 
harvest;  mowers,  as  they  rested  from  using  the  scythe 
mothers,  as  they  busied  themselves  about  the  house- 
hold,— were  victims  to  an  enemy  who  disappeared  the 
moment  a  blow  was  struck,  and  who  was  ever  present 
where  a  garrison  or  a  family  ceased  its  vigilance. 
1708.      In  1708,  at  a  war-council  at  Montreal,  a  grand  ex- 
*Haver-s  petition  was  resolved  on  by  the  French  Indians  against 
W1i33.17'  New  England,  to  be  led  by  French  officers,  and  assist- 
Hutek.  e(^  kj  a  hundred  picked  Canadians.     The  party  of  the 
cESe".  French  Mohawks   and   the   Hurons   failed;    but   the 
»i".'    French  under  Des  Chaillons  and  Hertel  de  Rouville, 
the  destroyer  of  Deerfield,  willing  to  continue  mur- 
dering helpless  women  and  children,  when  a  part,  at 
least,  of  the  savages  were  weary  of  it,  with  Algonquin 
Indians  as  allies,  ascended  the  St.  Francis,  and,  passing 
by  the  White  Mountains, — having  travelled   near  one 
hundred  and  fifty  leagues  through  almost  impractica- 
ble paths, — made  their  rendezvous  at  Winnipiseogeo. 
There  they  failed  to  meet  the  expected  aid  from  the 
Abenakis,  and  in  consequence  were  too  feeble  for  an 
attack  on  Portsmouth ;  they   therefore  descended  the 
Mcrrimac  to  the  town  of  Haverhill,  resolving  to  sack 
a  remote  village,  rather  than  return  without  striking  a 
blow. 


MASSACRE    AT    HAVERH1LL,. 


215 


Haverhiil  was,  at  that  time,  a  cluster  of  thirty  cot-  CHAP. 

A.  A  I. 

tages  and  log-cabins,  embosomed  in  the  primeval  for-  ^^ 
ests,  near  the  tranquil  Merrimac.  In  the  centre  of  the  17oa 
settlement  stood  a  new  meeting-house,  the  pride  of 
the  village.  On  the  few  acres  of  open  land,  the  ripen- 
ing Indian  corn  rose  over  the  charred  stumps  of  trees, 
and  on  the  north  and  west  bordered  on  the  illimitable, 
unbroken  wilderness,  which  stretched  far  away  to  the 
White  Mountains,  and  beyond  them,  and,  by  its  very 
depth,  seemed  a  bulwark  against  invasion.  On  the 
night  of  the  twenty-ninth  of  August,  the  evening 
prayers  had  been  said  in  each  family,  and  the  whole 
village  fearlessly  resigned  itself  to  sleep.  That  night, 
the  band  of  invaders  slept  quietly  in  the  near  forest. 
At  daybreak,  they  assumed  the  order  of  battle ;  Rou-  Mirick- 
ville  addressed  the  soldiers,  who,  after  their  orisons, 
marched  against  the  fort,  raised  the  shrill  yell,  and 
dispersed  themselves  through  the  village  to  their  work 
of  blood.  The  rifle  rang ;  the  cry  of  the  dying  rose. 
Benjamin  Rolfe,  the  minister,  was  beaten  to  death ; 
one  Indian  sunk  a  hatchet  deep  into  the  brain  of  his 
wife,  while  another  caught  his  infant  child  from  its 
dying  mother,  and  dashed  its  head  against  a  stone., 
Thomas  Hartshorne  and  his  two  sons,  attempting  a 
rally,  were  shot;  a  third  son  was  tomahawked.  John 
Johnston  was  shot  by  the  side  of  his  wife.:  she  fled  in- 
to the  garden,  bearing  an  infant ;  was  caught  and  mur- 
dered ;  but,  as  she  fell,  she  concealed  her  child,  which 
was  found,  after  the  massacre,  clinging  to  her  breast. 
Siunon  Wainwright  was  killed  at  the  first  fire.  Mary, 
his  wife,  fearlessly  unbarred  the  door;  with  cheerful 
mien,  bade  the  savages  enter;  procured  for  them  what 
they  wished ;  arid,  when  they  demanded  money,  she 
-etired  as  if  to  "bring  it,"  and,  gathering  up  all  her 
children  save  one,  succeeded  in  escaping. 


216  QUEEiN    ANNE'S    WAR. 

CHAP.      All    the   attacks  were  made  simultaneously.     The 

-  English  began  to  gather;  the  intrepid  Davis  sounded 

an  alarm  ;  and,  as  the  destroyers  retired,  Samuel  Ayer, 
ever  to  be  remembered  in  village  annals,  with  but  a 
thirteenth  part  of  their  number,  hung  on  their  rear, — 
himself  a  victim,  yet  rescuing  several  from  captivity. 

The  day  was  advanced  when  the  battle  ended.  The 
rude  epitaph  on  the  moss-grown  stone  tells  where  the 
interment  was  made  in  haste :  Rolfe,  his  wife,  and 
child,  fill  one  grave :  in  the  burial-ground  of  the  vil- 
lage, an  ancient  mound  marks  the  resting-place  of  the 
little  multitude  of  victims. 

Such  were  the  sorrows  of  that  generation.  At  day- 
break, the  villagers  seemed  secure :  a  little  later  in  the 
morning,  while  the  dew  was  hardly  dry  on  the  willows 
by  the  river  side,  the  smoke  rose  from  smouldering 
ruins,  and  the  sward  was  red  with  the  blood  of  their 
pastor  and  brave  men,  of  women  and  mangled  babes. 
Nor  did  this  savage  warfare  pass  unreproved.  "  I  hold 
it  my  duty  towards  God  and  my  neighbor" — such  was 
the  message  of  the  brave  Peter  Schuyler  to  the  mar- 
quis de  Vaudreuil — "  to  prevent,  if  possible,  these  bar- 
CvoTx'r  barous  and  heathen  cruelties.  My  heart  swells  with 

239.  •? 

indignation,  when  I  think  that  a  war  between  Chris- 
tian princes,  bound  to  the  exactest  laws  of  honor  and 
generosity,  which  their  noble  ancestors  have  illustrated 
by  brilliant  examples,  is  degenerating  into  a  savage 
and  boundless  butchery.  These  are  not  the  methods 
lor  terminating  the  war.-  Would  that  all  the  world 
thought  with  me  on  this  subject." 

Uut  enough  of  these  heart-rending  tales.  Such 
fruitless  cruelties  inspired  our  fathers  with  a  deep  ha- 
tred of  the  French  missionaries ;  they  compelled  the 
employment  of  a  large  part  of  the  inhabitants  as  sol- 


CONQUEST    OF   ACADIA.  217 

diers ,  so  that  there  was  one  year,  during  this  war,  CHAP. 
when  even  a  fifth  part  of  all  who  were  capable  of  ' — v — ' 
bearing  arms  were  in  active  service.  They  gave  birth, 
also,  to  a  willingness  to  exterminate  the  natives.  The 
Indians  vanished  when  their  homes  were  invaded  ; 
they  could  not  be  reduced  by  usual  methods  of  warfare : 
hence  a  bounty  was  offered  for  every  Indian  scalp;  tor 
regular  forces  under  pay,  the  grant  was  ten  pounds, — 
to  volunteers  in  actual  service,  twice  that  sum ;  but  if 
men  would,  of  themselves,  without  pay,  make  up  par- 
ties, and  patrol  the  forests  in  search  of  Indians,  as 
of  old  the  woods  were  scoured  for  wild  beasts,  the 
chase  was  invigorated  by  the  promised  "encourage- 
ment of  fifty  pounds  per  scalp." 

Meantime,  the  English  had  repeatedly  made  ef- 
forts to  gain  the  French  fortress  on  Newfoundland  , 
and  New  England  had  desired  the  reduction  of  Acadia, 
as  essential  to  the  security  of  its  trade  and  fishery.  In 
1704,  a  fleet  from  Boston  harbor  had  defied  Port 
Royal;  and,  three  years  afterwards,  under  the  influ- 
ence of  Dudley,  Massachusetts  attempted  its  con- 
quest. The  failure  of  that  costly  expedition,  which 
was  thwarted  by  the  activity  of  Castin,  created  discon- 
tent in  the  colony,  by  increasing  its  paper  money  and 
its  debts.  But  England  was  resolved  on  colonial  ac- 
quistions  ;  in  1709,  a  fleet  and  an  army  were  to  be 
sent  from  Europe:  from  Massachusetts  and  Rhode 
Island,  twelve  hundred  men  were  to  aid  in  the  con- 
quest of  Quebec;  from  the  central  provinces,  fifteen 
hundred  were  to  assail  Montreal ;  and,  in  one  season, 
Acadia,  Canada,  and  Newfoundland,  were  to  be  re- 
duced under  British  sovereignty.  The  colonies  kin- 
dled at  the  prospect :  to  defray  the  expenses  of  prepa- 
ration, Connecticut,  and  New  York,  and  New  Jersey, 

VOL.    III.  28 


218  QUEEN    ANNE'S   WAR. 

CHAP,  then  first  issued  bills  of  credit ;  stores  were  collected ; 

•^v^  the  troops  levied  from  the  hardy  agriculturists.  But 
no  English  fleet  arrived;  and  the  energies  that  had 
been  roused  were  wasted  in  inactive  expectation. 

1710.  At  last,  in  1710,  the  final  successful  expedition  against 
Acadia  took  place.  At  the  instance  of  Nicholson,  who 
had  been  in  England  for  that  purpose,  and  under  his 
command,  six  English  vessels,  joined  by  thirty  of  New 

18^29.  England,  and  four  New  England  regiments,  sailed  in 
September  from  Boston.  In  six  days,  the  fleet  anchored 
before  the  fortress  of  Port  Royal.  The  garrison  of  Su- 
bercase,  the  French  governor,  was  weak  and  disheart- 
ened, and  could  not  be  rallied  ;  murmurs  and  desertions 
multiplied:  the  terms  of  capitulation  were  easily  con- 
certed ;  the  tattered  garrison,  one  hundred  and  fifty-six 
in  number,  marched  out  with  the  honors  of  war,  to 
beg  food  as  alms.  Famine  would  have  soon  compelled 
a  surrender  at  discretion.  In  honor  of  the  queen,  the 
place  was  called  Annapolis.  The  French  were  un- 
willing to  abandon  the  hope  of  recovering  possession. 
Vaudreuil,  having  appointed  Castin  his  lieutenant  for 
Acadia,  in  the  winter  of  1710,  sent  messengers  over 
the  snows  to  the  missionaries,  to  preserve  the  zeal  and 
patriotism  of  the  Indian  allies  and  the  inhabitants; 
but, ,  from  that  day  to  this,  the  English  flag  has  been 
safe  at  Annapolis. 

1710.  Flushed  with  victory,  Nicholson  repaired  to  Eng- 
land to  urge  the  conquest  of  Canada.  The  tories, 
who  were  in  power,  desired  peace,  and  colonial  sue* 
cesses  might  conciliate  the  mercantile  interest  in  its 
favor  by  the  prospect  of  commercial  advantages.  The 
legislature  of  New  York  had  unanimously  appealed  to 
the  queen  on  the  dangerous  progress  of  French  domin- 
ion at  the  west.  "  It  is  well  known,""  said  their  ad- 


ST.  JOHN    LORD    BOLINGBROKE.  219 

dress,  "  that  the  French  can  go  by  water  from  Que-  CHAP 

bee  to  Montreal.     From  thence  they  can  do  the  like, 

through  rivers  and  lakes,  at  the  back  of  all  your  majes-  171° 
ty's  plantations  on  this  continent  as  far  as  Carolina; 
and  in  this  large  tract  of  country  live  several  nations  of 
Indians  who  are  vastly  numerous.  Among  those  they 
constantly  send  emissaries  and  priests,  with  toys  and 
trifles,  to  insinuate  themselves  into  their  favor.  Af- 
terwards they  send  traders,  then  soldiers,  and  at  last 
build  forts  among  them ;  and  the  garrisons  are  encour- 
aged to  intermarry,  cohabit,  and  incorporate  among 
them ;  and  it  may  easily  be  concluded  that,  upon  a 
peace,  many  of  the  disbanded  soldiers  will  be  sent 
thither  for  that  purpose."  At  the  same  time,  five 
sachems  from  the  Iroquois  had  sailed  with  Schuyler 
for  England.  In  London,  amidst  the  gaze  of  crowds, 
dressed  in  English  small-clothes  of  black,  with  scarlet 
ingrain  cloth  mantles,  edged  with  gold,  for  their  blan- 
kets, they  were  conducted  in  state  in  coaches  to  an 
audience  with  Queen  Anne;  and,  giving  her  belts  of 
wampum,  they  avowed  their  readiness  to  take  up  the 
hatchet  and  aid  in  the  reduction  of  Canada. 

At  that  time,  the  secretary  of  state  was  St.  John,  1711 
afterwards  raised  to  the  peerage  as  Viscount  Boling- 
broke,  whom  a  keen  observer  described  as  "  the  great- 
est young  man"  of  his  day.  He  possessed  wit,  quick- 
ness of  apprehension,  good  learning,  and  excellent 
taste.  Though  fond  of  pleasure,  he  was  prompt,  and 
capable  of  close  and  long-continued  application.  Win- 
ning friends  by  his  good  temper  and  admirable  conver 
sation,  he  was  the  best  orator  in  the  house  of  commons ; 
and  the  whole  parliament,  turned  by  his  eloquence, 
would  do  nothing  without  him.  But  St.  John  had  no 
faith,  and  therefore  he  could  keep  no  faith.  He  could 


22C  QUEEN    ANNE'S    WAR. 

CHAP,  be  true  in  his  attachment  to  a  woman  or  a  friend,  bu 
— -^  not  to  a  principle,  or  a  people.     "The  rabble,"  he 
1711.  Would  say,  "is  a  monstrous  beast,  that  has  passions  to 

be  moved,  but  no  reason  to  be  appealed  to; plain 

sense  will  influence  half  a  score  of  men,  at  most,  while 
mystery  will  lead  millions  by  the  nose ; "  and,  having 
no  reliance  in  the  power  of  the  common  mind  to  dis- 
cern the  right,  or  in  the  power  of  truth  to  resist 
opposition  and  guide  through  perils,  he  could  give 
no  fixedness  to  his  administration,  and  no  security 
to  his  fame.  Pushing  intellectual  freedom  even  to 
libertinism,  it  was  he  who  was  author  of  the  tax 
on  newspapers.  Indifferent,  not  to  the  forms  of 
religion  only,  but  to  religion  itself,  he  was  the  unscru- 
pulous champion  of  the  High  Church,  and  support- 
ed the  worst  acts  of  its  most  intolerant  policy.  As 
he  grew  older,  he  wrote  on  patriotism  and  liberty,  and 
became  himself,  from  the  dupe  of  the  Pretender,  the 
suitor  for  power  through  the  king's  mistress.  Thus, 
though  capable  of  great  ideas,  and  catching  glimpses 
of  universal  truth,  his  horizon  was  shut  in  by  the  self- 
ishness of  his  ambition.  Writing  brilliant  treatises  on 
philosophy,  he  fretted  at  the  bit  which  curbed  his  pas- 
sions ;  and,  from  the  unsettled  character  of  his  mind, 
though  rapid  in  appropriating  a  scheme,  he  could  nei- 
ther inspire  confidence,  nor  enjoy  internal  calm,  nor 
arrange  an  enterprise  with  method.  Capable  of  ener- 
gy and  present  activity,  he  had  no  soundness  of  judg- 
ment, nor  power  of  combination.  Such  was  the 
statesman  who  planned  the  conquest  of  Canada.  "As 
that  whole  design,"  wrote  St.  John,  in  June,  1711, 
Bi01  icT  "  was  f°rmed  by  me,  and  the  management  of  it  singly 
carried  on  by  me,  I  have  a  sort  of  paternal  concern  for 
the  success  of  it." 


THE  PROJECTED  CONQUEST  OF  CANADA.         221 

The   fleet,    consisting   of  fifteen   ships-of-war  and  CHAP. 
forty  transports,  was  placed  under  the  command  of  Sir  ^^ 
Hovenden  Walker;  the  seven  veteran  regiments  from  1711 
Marlborough's  army,  with  a  battalion  of  marines,  were 
intrusted  to  Mrs.  Masham's  second  brother,  whom  the 
queen  had  pensioned  and  made  a  brigadier-general, — 
whom  his  bottle  companions  called  honest  Jack  Hill, — 
whom,  when  a  tall,  ragged  boy,  the  duchess  of  Marl- 
borough  had,  from  charity,  put  to  school, — and  whom 
the  duke,  refusing  him  a  colonelcy,  had  properly  de- 
scribed as  good  for  nothing.     In  the  preparations,  the 
public  treasury  was  defrauded  for  the  benefit  of  favor- 
ites.    "  Improve  to-day,  instead  of  depending  on  to-    H«B 
morrow;" — such  was  the  secretary's  admonition  to  his  Bc"uf^ 
admiral.     "The  queen  is  very  uneasy  at   the  unac-   ^^ 
countable  loss  of  time  in  your  stay  at  Portsmouth." 
Yet  the  fleet  did  sail  at  last ;  and  when  St.  John  heard 
of  its  safe  arrival  at  Boston,  he  wrote  exultingly  to  the 
duke  of  Orrery,  "  I  believe  you  may  depend  on  our  be-    301. 
ing  masters,  at  this  time,  of  all  North  America."  i.  m 

From  June  twenty-fifth  to  the  thirtieth  day  of  July, 
the  fleet  lay  at  Boston,  taking  in  supplies  and  the  colo- 
nial forces.  At  the  same  time,  an  army  of  men  from 
Connecticut,  New  Jersey,  and  New  York,  Palatine 
emigrants,  and  about  six  hundred  Iroquois,  assembling 
at  Albany,  prepared  to  burst  upon  Montreal ;  while 
at  the  west,  in  Wisconsin,  the  English  had,  through 
the  Iroquois,  obtained  allies  in  the  Foxes,  ever  wishing 
to  expel  the  French  from  Michigan. 

The  news  of  the  intended  expedition  was  seasona* 
bly  received  in  Quebec  ;  and  the  measures  of  defence 
began  by  a  renewal  of  friendship  with  the  Indians. 
To  deputies  from  the  Onondagas  and  Senecas,  the 
governor  spoke  of  the  fidelity  with  which  the  French 


222  QUEEN  ANNE'S    WAR. 

CHAP,  had  kept  their  treaty  ;  and  he  reminded  them  of  theii 
>^v^  promise  to  remain  quiet  upon  their  mats. 
1711  A  great  war  festival  was  next  held,  at  which  were 
present  all  the  savages  domiciliated  near  the  French 
settlements,  and  all  the  delegates  of  their  allies  who 
had  come  down  to  Montreal.  In  the  presence  of  sev- 
en or  eight  hundred  warriors,  the  war-song  was  sung, 
and  the  hatchet  uplifted.  The  savages  of  the  remote 
west  were  wavering,  till  twenty  Hurons  from  Detroit 
took  up  the  hatchet,  and  swayed  all  the  rest  by  their 
example.  The  influence  of  the  Jesuits  had  never  been 
so  manifest  :  by  their  power  over  the  natives,  an  alli- 
ance extending  to  the  Chippewas  constituted  the  de- 
fence of  Montreal. 

Descending  to  Quebec,  Vaudreuil  found  Abenaki 
volunteers  assembling  for  his  protection.  Measures 
for  resistance  had  been  adopted  with  hearty  earnest- 
ness ;  the  fortifications  were  strengthened  ;  Beauport 
was  garrisoned  ;  and  the  people  were  resolute  and  con- 
fiding —  even  women  were  ready  to  labor  for  the  com- 
mon defence. 

Men  watched  impatiently  the  approach  of  the  fleet. 
25^'  Towards  the  last  of  August,  it  was  said  that  peasants 
at  Matanes  had  descried  ninety  or  ninety-six  vessels 
with  the  English  flag.  Yet  September  came,  and  still 
from  the  heights  of  Cape  Diamond  no  eye  caught  one 
sail  of  the  expected  enemy. 

The  English  squadron,  leaving  Boston  on  the  thir- 
Aug>  tieth  of  July,  after  loitering  near  the  Bay  of  Gaspe, 
14-20.  at  jast  kegan  to  ascend  the  St.  Lawrence,  while  Sir 
Hovenden  Walker  puzzled  himself  with  contriving 


walk-   how  he  should  secure  his  vessels  during  the  winter  at 

Joi5ia1'  Quebec.     Fearing  "the  ice  in  the  river,  fieezing  to 

the  bottom,  would  bilge  them,  as  much  as  if  they  were 


ENGLISH    FLEET   IN   THE    ST.    LAWRENCE. 


223 


to  be  squeezed  between  rocks,"  he  could  think  of  no  CHAP 

.Xjvl. 

way  but  to  disencumber  them,  "  and  secure  them  on  

the  dry  ground,  in  frames  and  cradles,  till  the  thaw."  171L 
While  ascending  the  river,  which  was  "a  hundred 
fathom  deep," — and  which  yet  was,  in  winter,  to  freeze 
to  the  bottom, — on  the  evening  of  the  twenty-second 
of  August,  a  thick  fog  came  on,  with  an  easterly  breeze. 
The  pilots,  with  one  accord,  advised  that  the  fleet 
should  lie  to,  with  the  heads  of  the  vessels  to  the 
southward :  this  was  done,  and,  even  so,  the  vessels 
were  carried  towards  the  northern  shore.  Just  as 
Walker  was  going  to  bed,  the  captain  of  his  ship  came 
down  to  say  that  land  could  be  seen ;  and,  without 
going  on  deck,  the  admiral  wantonly  ordered  the  ships 
to  head  to  the  north.  There  was  on  the  quarter-deck 
a  man  of  sense, — Goddard,  a  captain  in  the  land  ser- 
vice :  he  rushed  to  the  cabin  in  great  haste,  and  im- 
portuned the  admiral  at  least  to  come  on  deck;  but 
the  self-willed  man  laughed  at  his  fears,  and  refused. 
A  second  time  Goddard  returned.  "  For  the  Lord's 
sake,  come  on  deck,"  cried  he,  "or  we  shall  certainly 
be  lost;  I  see  breakers  all  around  us!" — "Putting  on 
my  gown  and  slippers,"  writes  Walker,  "and  coming 
upon  deck,  I  found  what  he  told  me  to  be  true."  Even 
then  the  blind  admiral  shouted,  "  I  see  no  land  to  the 
leeward ! "  but  the  moon,  breaking  through  the  mists, 
gave  him  the  lie.  The  fleet  was  close  upon  the  north 
shore,  among  the  Egg  Islands.  Now  the  admiral  be- 
lieved the  pilots,  and  made  sail  immediately  for  the  mid- 
dle of  the  river ;  but  morning  showed  that  eight  ships 
had  been  wrecked,  and  eight  hundred  and  eighty-four 
men  drowned.  A  council  of  war  voted  unanimously 
that  it  was  impossible  to  proceed.  "  Had  we  arrived 
safe  at  Quebec,"  wrote  the  admiral,  "ten  or  twelve 


224  QUEEN  ANNE'S    WAR 

CHAP,  thousand  men  must  have  been  left  to  perish  of  cold 

JKhJkJU 

^^-  and  hunger:  by  the  loss  of  a  part,  Providence  saved  all 

l712-  the  rest!"  and  he  expected  public  honors  for  his  suc- 

cessful retreat,  which  to  him  seemed  as  glorious  as  a 

Walker,      . 

&-     victory. 

Such  was  the  issue  of  hostilities  in  the  north-east. 
The  failure  of  the  attack  on  Quebec  left  Nicholson  no 
option  but  to  retreat,  and  Montreal  also  was  unmo- 

1712.  lested.  Detroit,  though  not  till  the  next  year,  almost 
fell  before  the  valor  of  a  party  of  the  Ottagamies,  or 
Foxes  —  a  nation  passionate  and  untamable,  springing 
up  into  new  life  from  every  defeat,  and,  though  re- 
duced in  the  number  of  their  warriors,  yet  present 

chart*-  every  where  by  their  ferocious  enterprise  and  savage 
daring.  Resolving  to  burn  Detroit,  they  pitched  their 
lodgings  near  the  fort,  which  Du  Buisson,  with  but 
nan  twenty  Frenchmen,  defended.  Aware  of  their  inten- 
tion, he  summoned  his  Indian  allies  from  the  chase  ; 
and,  about  the  middle  of  May,  Ottawas,  and  Hurons, 
and  Potawatomies,  with  one  branch  of  the  Sacs,  Illi- 
nois, Menomonies,  and  even  Osages  and  Missouris, 
each  nation  with  its  own  ensign,  came  to  his  relief. 
So  wide  was  the  influence  of  the  missionaries  in  the 
west.  "Father,"  said  they,  "behold!  thy  children 
compass  thee  round.  We  will,  if  need  be,  gladly  die 
for  our  father  —  only  take  care  of  our  wives  and  our 
children,  and  spread  a  little  grass  over  our  bodies  to 
protect  them  against  the  flies."  The  warriors  of 
the  Fox  nation,  far  from  destroying  Detroit,  were 
themselves  besieged,  and,  at  last,  compelled  to  surren- 
der at  discretion.  Those  who  bore  arms  were  ruth- 
lessly murdered  ;  the  rest  distributed  as  slaves  among 
the  confederates,  to  be  saved  or  massacred,  at  the  will 
of  their  masters. 


FRANCE    DESIRES    PEACE   WITH    ENGLAND.  225 

Thus  was  Detroit,  though  claimed  by  the  English,  CHAP 
preserved  to  the  French.     Its  loss  would  have  been  ^^ 
the  ruin  of  New  France,  of  which  it  was  the  centre. 
Cherished  as  the  loveliest  spot  in  Canada,  its  posses- 
sion secured  the  intercourse  with  the  upper  Indians 
and  the  great  highway  to  the  Mississippi. 

In  the  mean  time,  the  preliminaries  of  a  treaty  had 
been  signed  between  France  and  England ;  and  the 
war,  which  had  grown  out  of  European  changes  and 
convulsions,  was  suspended  by  negotiations  that  were 
soon  followed  by  the  uncertain  peace  of  Utrecht. 

In  1706,  the  victories  of  Ramillies  and  of  Turin 
were  equally  fatal ;  and  France,  driven  from  its  out- 
posts, was  compelled  to  struggle  for  the  defence  of  its  1708 
own  soil.  The  aged  monarch,  humbled  in  arms,  re- 
duced in  power,  chagrined  as  a  king  by  the  visible  de- 
cline of  the  prosperity  of  his  kingdom,  dejected  at  the 
loss  of  foreign  provinces,  was  now  wounded  in  his  af- 
fections. His  children,  his  grandchildren,  all  but  one 
feeble  infant,  were  swept  away :  he  remained  alone. 
Bowing  to  the  stroke  of  Providence,  he  desired  peace,  April 
even  on  humiliating  terms.  "  I  have  always,"  said  he, 
"  submitted  to  the  divine  will.  I  make  a  sacrifice  of 
what  I  cherished  most — I  forget  my  glory."  And  he 
assented  to  the  dethronement  of  his  grandson.  The 
proud  confederates  demanded  more — that  he  should 
himself  assist  in  reducing  the  Spanish  monarchy.  This 
arrogant  demand  was  rejected ;  but,  on  the  defeat  at 
Malplaquet,  he  offered  to  abandon  Alsace,  and  to  pay 
a  million  of  livres  a  month  towards  the  charge  of  ex- 
pelling his  grandson  from  the  Spanish  throne.  The 
allies  demanded  that  he  himself  should  do  it.  "  If  I 
must  have  war,"  he  answered,  "  it  shall  not  be  with 
my  children ; "  and  he  immediately  began  to  enlist  on 
VOL.  in.  29 


226  PEACE    OF    UTRECHT.      ENGLAND   AND   FRANCE. 

CHAP  his  side  the  sympathies  of  the  dispassionate.  From 
1 — ^  the  banks  of  the  Danube,  the  Tagus,  and  the  Po,  his 
armies  had  been  driven  back  into  the  confines  of  his 
own  kingdom.  France  could  not  threaten  England 
with  a  king,  or  Holland  with  conquest,  or  the  emperor 
with  a  dispute  for  power  in  the  empire.  The  party 
of  peace  grew  every  day.  Besides,  the  archduke 
Charles,  whom  the  allies  had  proposed  as  king  of 
Spain,  was,  by  the  death  of  Joseph,  become  emperor. 
If  the  sovereign  over  the  Austrian  dominions,  and  head 
of  the  empire,  should  also  possess  the  undivided  Span- 
ish monarchy,  the  days  of  Charles  V.  would  return, 
and  the  balance  of  power  be  as  far  removed  as  ever. 

The  debility  of  France  became  its  safety,  and  the 
success  of  the  archduke  was  the  prevailing  motive  for 
neglecting  his  claims.  Moreover,  success  in  arms  had, 
in  1710,  under  the  auspices  of  the  victorious  duke  de 
Vendome,  and  with  the  applause  of  the  Spanish  na- 
tion, conducted  Philip  V.  to  Madrid.  His  expulsion 
was  become  impossible.  Public  opinion  demanded  the 
peace ;  and  in  England,  where  public  opinion  could 
reach  the  government,  the  lories  came  into  power  as 
the  party  of  peace.  Marlborough,  who  gave  utterance 
to  the  sentiment  that  the  enmity  between  England 
and  France  was  irreconcilable,  was  dismissed;  and 
humanity  was  pleased  at  the  dismissal. 
1713.  The  treaty  of  peace  concluded  at  Utrecht  was  mo- 
Ajp£l1  mentous  in  its  character  and  consequences.  It  closed 
the  series  of  universal  wars  for  the  balance  of  power, 
and,  establishing  the  territorial  relations  of  the  states 
adjoining  France  on  a  basis  which  endures  even  now, 
left  no  opportunity  for  future  wars,  except  for  com- 
merce or  opinion. 

The  Netherlands  were  the  barrier  against  French 


PEACE  OF  UTRECHT.   BAL\NCE  OF  POWER.        227 

encroachment.      As    Spain    was    now,   of  necessity,  CHAP. 

thrown  into  the  current  of  French  policy,  and  doomed  - 

to  be  stationary,  or  to  receive  an  impulse  from  France,  1713 
the  Netherlands  were  severed  from  Spain,  and  assigned 
to  Austria,  as  the  second  land  powrer  on  the  continent. 

The  house  of  Savoy  was  raised  to  the  rank  of  roy- 
alty, and  Sicily  at  first,  afterwards,  instead  of  Sicily, 
the  Island  of  Sardinia,  was  added  to  its  sceptre. 

The  kingdom  of  Naples,  at  first  wholly  severed  from 
Spain,  and  divided  between  the  houses  of  Savoy  and 
Austria,  soon  became  united,  and  was  constituted  a 
secundogeniture  of  Spain.  These  subsequent  changes 
were  subordinate,  and  not  inconsistent  with  the  policy 
of  the  peace  of  Utrecht,  and  were  therefore,  at  a  later 
day,  effected  without  a  general  conflagration  of  Europe. 

For  the  house  of  Brandenburg,  as  for  that  of  Sa- 
voy, a  monarchy  was  established.  We  shall  presently 
see  its  intimate  relation  with  the  fortunes  of  our 
country. 

Thus,  in  regard  to  territorial  arrangements,  the  poli- 
cy of  William  III.  was  triumphant.  The  balance  of 
power,  as  far  as  France  and  England  were  interested 
on  the  continent,  was  arranged  in  a  manner  that  might 
have  permitted  between  the  two  neighbors  a  perpetual 
peace. 

The  war  between  England  and  France  had  been 
not  only  a  contest  for  the  balance  of  power  on  the 
continent,  but  a  conflict  of  opinions;  and  this,  also, 
was  amicably  settled.  France  assented  to  the  emanci- 
pation of  England  from  the  maxims  of  legitimacy,  and 
not  only  recognized  the  reigning  queen,  but  also  the 
succession  to  the  crown,  as  vested  in  the  house  of 
Hanover  by  act  of  parliament.  For  Spain  it  compro- 
mised the  question,  asserting  the  divine  right  of  the 


228  PEACE    OF  UTRECHT.      ENGLAND  AND    SPAIN. 

CHAP,  family  of  the  Bourbons,  but  agreeing  that  the  two 
— v^L  crowns  should  never  be  united.  On  the  other  hand, 
1713  England  took  no  interest  in  any  question  of  freedom 
agitated  on  the  continent,  and  never  in  a  single  in- 
stance asserted,  or  was  suspected  of  asserting,  any  in- 
crease of  popular  power.  Its  faithful  allies,  the  Cata- 
lonians,  had  maintained  their  liberties  inherited  from 
the  middle  age :  the  abolition  of  these  liberties  was 
their  punishment  from  the  Bourbons  for  having  joined 
the  opposition  to  legitimacy;  and,  in  the  treaty  of 
peace,  England  mocked  them  by  a  clause  which  prom- 
ised them  "the  privileges  of  Castile," — that  is,  the  loss 
of  all  their  own  liberties.  The  government  of  Eng- 
land was  in  the  hands  of  an  aristocracy;  and  the  abso- 
lute monarchy  of  the  continent,  sure  of  the  conserva- 
tive influence  of  its  foreign  policy,  had  no  dread  of 
Great  Britain  as  the  supporter  in  arms  of  revolutionary 
principles.  As  no  eye  glanced  across  the  Atlantic  to 
watch  the  principles  which  were  springing  into  power- 
ful activity  on  the  borders  of  the  wilderness,  it  seemed 
as  if  European  revolutions  and  European  wars  for 
opinion  were  forever  at  an  end. 

And  yet  the  treaty  of  peace  at  Utrecht  scattered 
the  seeds  of  war  broadcast  throughout  the  globe.  The 
world  had  entered  on  the  period  of  mercantile  privi- 
lege. Instead  of  establishing  equal  justice,  England 
sought  commercial  advantages ;  and,  as  the  mercantile 
system  was  identified  with  the  colonial  system  of  the 
great  maritime  powers  of  Europe,  the  political  interest 
which  could  alone  kindle  universal  war,  was  to  be 
sought  in  the  colonies.  Hitherto  the  colonies  were 
but  subordinate  to  European  politics:  henceforward, 
the  question  of  trade  on  our  borders,  the  question  of 
terr'tory  on  our  frontier,  involved  an  interest  which 


PEACE   OF    UTRECHT.      AUSTRIA   AND    BELGIUM.  229 

could  excite  the  world  to  arms.     For  about  two  centu-  CHAP 

X_XI 

ries,  the  wars  of  religion  had  prevailed ; — the  wars  for  ^^ 
commercial  advantages  were  now  prepared.     The  in-  l713 
terests  of  commerce,  under  the  narrow  point  of  view 
of  privilege  and  of  profit,  regulated  diplomacy,  swayed 
legislation,  and  marshaled  revolutions. 

First,  then,  by  the  peace  of  Utrecht,  Spain  lost  all 
her  European  provinces,  and  retained  all  her  colonies. 
The  mother  country,  being  thus  left  with  a  population 
of  but  six  or  seven  millions,  had  no  strength  propor- 
tionate to  the  vast  extent  of  her  colonial  possessions. 
She  held  them  not  by  physical  force,  but  by  the  power 
of  established  interests,  usages,  arid  religion,  and  in 
some  measure  on  sufferance,  at  the  will  of  the  mari- 
time powers  which  aspired  to  the  dominion  of  the  seas. 
Great  Britain,  moreover,  remained  in  possession  of 
Gibraltar,  her  strongest  fortress,  the  key  to  the  Medi- 
terranean. By  insisting  on  the  cession  of  the  Spanish 
Netherlands  to  Austria,  England  lost  its  only  hold  on 
Spain ;  and  by  taking  Gibraltar,  it  made  Spain  its  im- 
placable enemy. 

Again :  by  the  peace  of  Utrecht,  Belgium  was  com- 
pelled to  forego  the  advantages  with  which  she  had 
been  endowed  by  the  God  of  nature;  to  gratify  com- 
mercial jealousy,  Antwerp  was  denied  the  use  of  the 
deep  waters  that  flowed  by  her  walls ;  and  afterwards 
the  Austrian  efforts  at  trade  with  the  East  Indies 
were  suffocated  in  their  infancy.  This  policy  was 
an  open  violation  of  international  justice, — a  fraud  up- 
on humanity, — a  restriction,  by  covenant,  of  national 
industry  and  prosperity.-  It  was  a  pledge  that  Belgium 
would  look  beyond  treaties,  and  grow  familiar  with 
natural  rights ;  and  it  was  possible  that,  even  in  the 
line  of  Austrian  monarchs,  a  wise  ruler  might  one  day 
be  penetrated  with  indignation  at  the  outrage. 


230  PEACE   OF   UTRECHT.      FREE   SHIPS:   FREE    GOODS 

CHAP       With  regard  to  France,  one  condition  of  the  treaty 

~  —  "~  was  still  worse.  Jealous  of  the  growth  of  the  French 
navy,  England  extorted  the  covenant,  that  the  port  of 
Dunkirk  should  be  not  merely  abandoned,  but  filled 
up.  A  treaty  of  peace  contained  a  stipulation  for  the 
ruin  of  a  harbor  ! 

On  the  opening  of  the  contest  with  France,  William 
III.,  though  bearing  the  standard  of  freedom,  was  false 
to  the  principle  of  the  liberty  of  the  seas,  —  prohibiting 
a^  commerce  with  France,  —  and  to  the  protest  of  Hol- 
land  gave  no  other  reply  than  that  it  was  his  will,  and 

1  m  that  he  had  power  to  make  it  good.  To  the  tory  min- 
istry of  Queen  Anne  belongs  the  honor  of  having  in- 

1713.  serted  in  the  treaties  of  peace  a  principle,  which,  but 

for  England,  would,  in  that  generation,  have  wanted 

with    a  vindicator.     But  truth,    once    elicited,    never   dies. 

Prance, 

*17  As  it  descends  through  time,  it  may  be  transmitted 
from  state  to  state,  from  monarch  to  commonwealth  ; 
but  its  light  is  never  extinguished,  and  never  permitted 
to  fall  to  the  ground.  A  great  truth,  if  no  existing  na- 
assume  its  guardianship,  has  power  —  such 


s^ln1,  is  God's  providence  —  to  call  a  nation  into  being,  and 
live  by  the  life  it  imparts.  What  Holland  asserted, 
England  kept  alive,  and  Prussia  received,  till  it  was 
safe  against  any  possible  combination.  The  idea 
which  Grotius  promulgated,  Bolingbroke  fostered,  till 
the  great  Frederic  could  become  its  champion,  and  all 
the  continent  of  Europe  invoke  America  to  secure  its 
triumph.  "Free  ships"  —  such  was  international  law, 
as  interpreted  by  England  at  Utrecht  —  "  Free  ships 
shall  also  give  a  freedom  to  goods."  The  name  of 
contraband  was  narrowly  defined,  and  the  right  of 
blockade  severely  limited.  Sailors,  in  those  days, 
needed  no  special  protections  ;  for  it  was  covenanted 


ENGLAND    AND    THE    COLONIES    OF    SPAIN.  231 

that,  with  the  exception  of  soldiers  in  the  actual  ser-  CHAP 

A  XXI. 

vice  of  the  enemy,  the  flag  shall  protect  the  persons  

that  sail  under  it.  1713 

Further:  England,  guarding  with  the  utmost  strict- 
ness the  monopoly  of  her  own  colonial  trade,  en- 
croached by  treaty  on  the  colonial  monopoly  of  Spain. 
There  shall  be  trade,  it  was  said,  between  Great  Brit- 
ain and  Spain,  and  their  respective  plantations  and 
provinces,  "where  hitherto  trade  and  commerce  have 
been  accustomed ; "  so  that  a  prescriptive  right  might 
spring  from  the  continued  successes  of  British  smug- 
glers. Besides,  as  England  gained  the  assiento,  it 

B  m         m  Assien- 

was  agreed  that  the  agents  of  the  assientists  might  en- 
ter  all  the  ports  of  Spanish  America;  might  send  their 
factors  into  inland  places;  might,  for  their  own  sup- 
plies, establish  warehouses,  safe  against  search  until 
after  proof  of  fraudulent  importations;  might  send 
yearly  a  ship  of  five  hundred  tons,  laden  with  mer- 
chandise, to  be  entered  free  of  all  duties  in  the  Indies, 
and  to  be  sold  at  the  annual  fair ;  might  send  the  re- 
turns of  this  traffic,  whether  bars  of  silver,  ingots  of 
gold,  or  the  produce  of  the  country,  directly  to  Europe 
in  English  vessels.  The  hope  was  further  expressed, 
that,  from  Europe  and  the  North  American  colonies, 
direct  supplies  might  be  furnished  to  the  assientists  in 
small  vessels, — that  is,  in  vessels  most  likely  to  engage 
in  smuggling.  Here,  also,  lay  the  seeds  of  war :  the 
great  colonial  monopolists  were  divided  against  each 
other ;  and  England  sought  to  engross,  if  possible,  ev- 
ery advantage.  Many  were  the  consequences  to  our 
fathers  from  these  encroachments :  they  opened  trade 
between  our  colonies  and  the  Spanish  islands;  they 
stimulated  England  to  aggressions  which  led  tu  a  war; 
they  incensed  Spain,  so  that  she  could  wish  to  see  the 


232 


ENGLAND  AND  THE  SLAVE  TRADE. 


Cxxir*  Sreat  c°l°nial  system  impaired,  if  by  that  means  she 

"  could  revenge  herself  on  England. 

1713.  gut  fae  assjento  itself  was,  for  English  America,  the 
most  weighty  result  of  the  negotiations  at  Utrecht.  It 
was  demanded  by  St.  John,  in  1711 :  and  Louis  XIV. 

OooXe'a  m  J 

S£  promised  his  good  offices  to  procure  this  advantage  for 
the  English.  "  Her  Britannic  majesty  did  offer  and 
Undertake," — such  are  the  words  of  that  treaty, — "  by 
persons  whom  she  shall  appoint,  to  bring  into  the  West 
Indies  of  America  belonging  to  his  Catholic  majesty, 
in  the  space  of  thirty  years,  one  hundred  and  forty- four 
thousand  negroes,  at  the  rate  of  four  thousand  eight 
hundred  in  each  of  the  said  thirty  years," — paying,  on 
four  thousand  of  them,  a  duty  of  thirty-three  and  a 
third  dollars  a  head.  The  assientists  might  introduce 
as  many  more  as  they  pleased,  at  the  less  rate  of  duty 
of  sixteen  and  two  thirds  dollars  a  head — only,  no 
scandal  was  to  be  offered  to  the  Roman  Catholic  re- 
ligion !  Exactest  care  was  taken  to  secure  a  monopo- 
ly. No  Frenchman,  nor  Spaniard,  nor  any  other  per- 
sons,  might  introduce  one  negro  slave  into  Spanish 
America.  For  the  Spanish  world  in  the  Gulf  of  Mex- 
ico, on  the  Atlantic,  and  along  the  Pacific,  as  well  as 
for  the  English  colonies,  her  Britannic  majesty,  by 
persons  of  her  appointment,  was  the  exclusive  slave 
trader.  England  extorted  the  privilege  of  filling  the 
New  World  with  negroes.  As  great  profits  were  an- 
ticipated from  the  trade,  Philip  V.  of  Spain  took  one 
quarter  of  the  common  stock,  agreeing  to  pay  for  it  by 
a  stock-note  ;  Queen  Anne  reserved  to  herself  another 
quarter ;  and  the  remaining  moiety  was  to  be  divided 
among  her  subjects.  Thus  did  the  sovereigns  of  Eng- 
land and  Spain  become  the  largest  slave  merchants  in 
the  world.  Lady  Masham  promised  herself  a  share  of 


FRANCE   CEDES  AMERICAN  TERRITORY   TO  ENGLAND.          233 

the  profits ;  but  Harley,  who  had  good  sense,  and  was  CHAP 
most  free  from  avarice,  advised  the  assignment  of  the  ^ — 
Queen's   portion   of    the   stock    to    the    South    Sea 
company. 

Controlling  the  trade  in  slaves,  who  cost  nothing 
but  trinkets,  and  toys,  and  refuse  arms,  England 
gained,  by  the  sale  of  the  children  of  Africa  into  bond- 
age in  America,  the  capital  which  built  up  and  con- 
firmed a  British  empire  in  Hindostan.  The  political 
effects  of  this  traffic  were  equally  perceptible  in  the 
West  Indies.  The  mercantile  system,  of  which  the 
whole  colonial  system  was  the  essential  branch,  culmi- 
nated in  the  slave  trade,  and  in  the  commercial  policy 
adopted  with  regard  to  the  chief  produce  of  slave  labor. 
The  statesmen  who  befriended  the  system  of  colonial 
monopoly,  showed  their  highest  favor  to  the  sugar  col- 
onies. 

Finally,  England,  by  the  peace  of  Utrecht,  obtaineu 
from  France  large  concessions  of  territory  in  America. 
The  assembly  of  New  York  had  addressed  the  queen 
against  French  settlements  in  the  west ;  William  Penn 
advised  to  establish  the  St.  Lawrence  as  the  boundary 
.on  the  north,  and  to  include  in  our  colonies  the  valley 
of  the  Mississippi.  It  "  will  make  a  glorious  country" 
— such  were  his  prophetic  words.  Spots  wood  of  Vir- 
ginia, again  and  again,  directed  the  attention  of  the 
English  ministry  to  the  progress  of  the  French  in  the 
west.  In  St.  John  the  colony  of  Louisiana  excited 
"  apprehensions  of  the  future  undertakings  of  the  *$'$£• 
French  in  North  America."  The  colonization  of  Lou- 
isiana had  been  proposed  to  Queen  Anne ;  yet,  at  the 
peace,  that  immense  region  remained  to  France.  But 
VOL.  in.  30 


234  PEACE    OF   UTRECHT. 

CHAP.  England  obtained  supremacy  in  the  fisheries ;  the  en- 
^~  tire  possession  of  the  Bay  of  Hudson  and  its  borders, 
of  Newfoundland,  and  of  all  Nova  Scotia  or  Acadia, 
according  to  its  ancient  boundaries.  It  was  agreed, 
also,  that  "France  should  never  molest  the  Five  Na- 
tions subject  to  the  dominion  of  Great  Britain."  But 
how  far  did  Louisiana  extend  ?  It  included,  according 
to  French  ideas,  the  whole  basin  of  the  Mississippi. 
Did  the  treaty  of  Utrecht  assent  to  such  an  extension 
of  French  territory?  And  what  were  the  ancient  lim- 
its of  Acadia  ?  Did  it  include  all  that  is  now  New 
Brunswick?  or  had  France  still  a  large  territory  on 
the  Atlantic  between  Acadia  and  Maine?  And  what 
were  the  bounds  of  the  territory  of  the  Five  Nations, 
which  the  treaty  appeared  to  recognize  as  a  part  of 
the  English  dominions  ?  These  were  questions  which 
were  never  to  be  adjusted  amicably. 


CHAPTER    XXli 

THE  ABORIGINES   EAST  OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI. 

ON  the  surrender  of  Acadia  to  England,  the  lakes,  CHAP 

the  rivulets,  the  granite  ledges,  of  Cape  Breton,— -of  '- 

which  the  irregular  outline  is  guarded  by  reefs  of 
rocks,  and  notched  and  almost  rent  asunder  by  the 
constant  action  of  the  sea, — were  immediately  occu-  picjon« 
pied  as  a  province  of  France;  and,  in  1714,  fugitives 
from  Newfoundland  and  Acadia  built  their  huts  along 
its  coasts  wherever  safe  inlets  invited  fishermen  to 
spread  their  flakes,  and  the  soil,  to  plant  fields  and  gar- 
dens. In  a  few  years,  the  fortifications  of  Louisburg  1720 
began  to  rise — the  key  to  the  St.  Lawrence,  the  bul- 
wark of  the  French  fisheries,  and  of  French  commerce 
in  North  America.  From  Cape  Breton,  the  dominion 
of  Louis  XIV.  extended  up  the  St.  Lawrence  to  Lake 
Superior,  and  from  that  lake,  through  the  whole  course 
of  the  Mississippi,  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  and  the  Bay 
of  Mobile.  Just  beyond  that  bay  began  the  posts  of 
the  Spaniards,  which  continued  round  the  shores  of 
Florida  to  the  fortress  of  St.  Augustine.  The  English 
colonies  skirted  the  Atlantic,  extending  from  Florida  to 
the  eastern  verge  of  Nova  Scotia.  Thus,  if  on  the 
east  the  strait  of  Canso  divided  France  and  England, 
if  on  the  south  a  narrow  range  of  forests  intervened 
between  England  and  Spain,  every  where  else  the 
colonies  of  the  rival  nations  were  separated  from  each 


236         SYNOPSIS    OF    THE      KIBES    EAST    OF   THE    MISSISSIPPI. 

CHAP,  other  by  tribes  of  the  natives.     The  Europeans  had 

— — '  established  a  wide  circle  of  plantations,  or,  at  least, 
of  posts;  they  had  encompassed  the  aborigines  that 
dwelt  east  of  the  Mississippi ;  and,  however  eager 
might  now  be  the  passion  of  the  intruders  for  carving 
their  emblems  on  trees,  and  designating  their  lines  of 
anticipated  empire  on  maps,  their  respective  settle- 
ments were  kept  asunder  by  an  unexplored  wilderness, 
of  which  savages  were  the  occupants.  The  great 
strife  of  France  and  England  for  American  territory 
could  not,  therefore,  but  involve  the  ancient  possessors 
of  the  continent  in  a  series  of  conflicts,  which  have,  at 
last,  banished  the  Indian  tribes  from  the  earlier  limits 
of  our  republic.  The  picture  of  the  unequal  contest 

A  Hum.  inspires  a  compassion  that  is  honorable  to  humanity. 

Nouvl  The  weak  demand  sympathy.  If  a  melancholy  inter- 
est  attaches  to  the  fall  of  a  hero,  who  is  overpowered 
by  superior  force,  shall  we  not  drop  a  tear  at  the  fate 
of  nations,  whose  defeat  foreboded  the  exile,  if  it  did 
not  indeed  shadow  forth  the  decline  and  ultimate  ex- 
tinction, of  a  race  ? 

The  earliest  books  on  America  contained  tales  as 
wild  as  fancy  could  invent  or  credulity  repeat.  The 
land  was  peopled  with  pygmies  and  with  giants ;  the 
tropical  forests  were  said  to  conceal  tribes  of  negroes ; 
and  tenants  of  the  hyperborean  regions  were  white, 
like  the  polar  bear  or  the  ermine.  Jaques  Cartier  had 
heard  of  a  nation  that  did  not  eat;  and  the  -pedant 
Lafitau  believed,  if  not  in  a  race  of  headless  men,  at 
least,  that  there  was  a  nation  of  men  with  the  head 
not  rising  above  the  shoulders. 

Yet  the  first  aspect  of  the  original  inhabitants  of  the 
United  States  was  uniform.  Between  the  Indians  of 
Florida  and  Canada,  the  difference  was  scarcely  per- 


1.   THE  ALGONQUIN    FAMILY    OF    TRIBES.  237 

ceptible.     Their  manners  and  institutions,  as  well  as  CHAP 

i    -             ..IT                         i                            i    xxn- 
their  organization,  had  a  common  physiognomy;  and,  

before  their  languages  began  to  be  known,  there  was 
no  safe  method  of  grouping  the  nations  into  families. 
But  when  the  vast  variety  of  dialects  came  to  be  com-   Alben 
pared,  there  were  found  east  of  the  Mississippi  not    Gt?">l' 
more  than  eight  radically  distinct  languages,  of  which     »is 
five  still  constitute  the  speech  of  powerful  communi- 
ties, and  three  are  known  only  as  memorials  of  tribes 
that  have  almost  disappeared  from  the  earth. 

I.  The  primitive  language  which  was  the  most 
widely  diffused,  and  the  most  fertile  in  dialects,  re- 
ceived from  the  French  the  name  of  ALGONQUIN.  It 
was  the  mother  tongue  of  those  who  greeted  the  colo- 
nists of  Raleigh  at  Roanoke,  of  those  who  welcomed 
the  Pilgrims  to  Plymouth.  It  was  heard  from  the  Bay 
of  Gaspe  to  the  valley  of  the  Des  Moines ;  from  Cape 
Fear,  and,  it  may  be,  from  the  Savannah,  to  the  land  of 
the  Esquimaux ;  from  the  Cumberland  River  of  Ken- 
tucky to  the  southern  bank  of  the  Missinipi.  It  was 
spoken,  though  not  exclusively,  in  a  territory  that  ex- 
tended through  sixty  degrees  of  longitude,  and  more 
than  twenty  degrees  of  latitude. 

The  Micmacs,  who  occupied  the  east  of  the  conti- 
nent, south  of  the  little  tribe  that  dwelt  round  the  Bay 
of  Gaspe,  holding  possession  of  Nova  Scotia  and  the 
adjacent  isles,  and  probably  never  much  exceeding 
three  thousand  in  number,  were  known  to  our  fathers 
only  as  the  active  allies  of  the  French.  They  often 
invaded,  but  never  inhabited,  New  England. 

The  Etchemins,  or  Canoemen,  dwelt  not  only  on 
the  St.  John's  River,  the  Ouygondy  of  the  natives, 
but  on  the  St.  Croix,  which  Champlain  always  called 
from  their  name,  and  extended  as  far  west,  at  least,  as 
Mount  Desert. 


238          SYNOPSIS   OF  THE    TRIBES    EAST  OF  THE  MISSISSIPPI. 

CHAP       Next  to  these  came  the   Abenakis,  of  whom  one 

XXII 

^^  tribe  has  left  its  name  to  the  Penobscot,  and  another 


to  the  Androscoggin  ;  while  a  third,  under  the  auspices 
iion,&e.  of  Jesuits,  had  its  chapel  and  its  fixed  abode  in  the 
fertile  fields  of  Norridgewock. 

The  clans  that  disappeared  from  their  ancient  hunt- 
ing-grounds did  not  always  become  extinct  ;  they  often 
*^on  migrated  to  the  north  and  west.  Of  the  Sokokis,  who 
appear  to  have  dwelt  near  Saco,  and  to  have  had  an 
alliance  with  the  Mohawks,  many,  at  an  early  day, 
1646.  abandoned  the  region  where  they  first  became  known 
to  European  voyagers,  and  placed  themselves  under 
the  shelter  of  the  French  in  Canada.  The  example 
of  emigration  was  often  followed  ;  the  savage  shunned 
the  vicinity  of  the  civilized  :  among  the  tribes  of  Tex- 
as,  there  are  warriors  who  are  said  to  trace  their  lin- 
eage to  Algonquins  on  the  Atlantic;  and  descendants 
from  the  New  England  Indians  now  roam  over  west- 
ern prairies. 

The  forests  beyond  the  Saco,  with  New  Hampshire, 
and  even  as  far  as  Salem,  constituted  the  sachemship 
of  Pennacook,  or  Pawtucket,  and  often  afforded  a  ref- 
uge to  the  remnants  of  feebler  nations  around  them. 
The  tribe  of  the  Massachusetts,  even  before  the  colo- 
nization of  the  country,  had  almost  disappeared  from 
the  shores  of  the  bay  that  bears  its  name  ;  and  the  vil- 
lages of  the  interior  resembled  insulated  and  nearly 
independent  bands,  that  had  lost  themselves  in  the 
wilderness. 

Of  the  Pokanokets,  who  dwelt  round  Mount  Hope, 
and  were  sovereigns  over  Nantucket,  Martha's  Vine- 
yard, and  a  part  of  Cape  Cod  ;  of  the  Narragansetts, 
who  dwelt  between  the  bay  that  bears  their  name  and 
the  present  limits  of  Connecticut,  holding  dominion 


i.   THE    ALGOiNQUiJN    FAMILY    OF    TRIBES.  239 

over  Rhode  Island  and    its  vicinity,  as  well  as  a  part  CHAP 
of  Long  Island,  —  the  most  civilized  of  the  northern  na-  -  —  ^ 


tions  ;  of  the  Pequods,  the  branch  of  the  Mohegans 
that  occupied  the  eastern  part  of  Connecticut,  and 
ruled  a  part  of  Long  Island,  —  earliest  victims  to  the 
Europeans,  —  I  have  already  related  the  overthrow. 
The  country  between  the  banks  of  the  Connecticut 
and  the  Hudson  was  possessed  by  independent  vil- 
lages of  the  Mohegans,  kindred  with  the  Manhattans, 
whose  few  "smokes"  once  rose  amidst  the  forests  on 
New  York  Island. 

The  Lenni  Lenape,  in  their  two  divisions  of  the 
Minsi  and  the  Delawares,  occupied  New  Jersey,  the 
valley  of  the  Delaware  far  up  towards  the  sources  of 
that  river,  and  the  entire  basin  of  the  Schuylkill. 
Like  the  benevolent  William  Penn,  the  Delawares 
were  pledged  to  a  system  of  peace  ;  but,  while  Penn 
forbore  retaliation  freely,  the  passiveness  of  the  Dela- 
wares was  to  them  the  degrading  confession  of  their  » 
defeat  and  submission  to  the  Five  Nations.  Their 
conquerors  had  stripped  them  of  their  rights  as  warri- 
ors, and  compelled  them  to  endure  taunts  as  women. 

Beyond  the  Delaware,  on  the  Eastern  Shore,  dwelt 
the  Nanticokes,  who  disappeared  without  glory,  or 
melted  imperceptibly  into  other  tribes  ;  and  the  names 
of  Accomac  and  Pamlico  are  the  chief  memorials  of 
tribes  that  made  dialects  of  the  Algonquin  the  mother 
tongue  of  the  natives  along  the  sea-coast  as  far  south, 
at  least,  as  Cape  Hatteras.  It  is  probable,  also,  that 
the  Corees,  or  Coramines,  who  dwelt  to  the  southward 
of  the  Neuse  River,  spoke  a  kindred  language  —  thus  J^jj, 
establishing  Cape  Fear  as  the  southern  limit  of  the 
Algonquin  speech. 

In  Virginia,  the  same  language  was  heard  through- 


171 


240          SYNOPSIS   OF   THE   TRIBES    EAST   OF   THE    MISSISSIPPI. 


CHAP,  out  the  whole  dominion  of  Powhatan,  which  had  the 

- — ^  tribes  of  the  Eastern  Shore  as  its  dependencies,  and 
included  all  the  villages  west  of  the  Chesapeake,  from 
the  most  southern  tributaries  of  James  River  to  the 
Patuxent.  The  power  of  the  little  empire  was  entire- 
ly broken  in  the  days  of  Opechancanough ;  and  after 
the  insurrection  of  Bacon,  the  confederacy  disappears 
from  history. 

The  Shawnees  connect  the  south-eastern  Algon- 
quins  with  the  west.  The  basin  of  the  Cumberland 
River  is  marked  by  the  earliest  French  geographers 
as  the  home  of  this  restless  nation  of  wanderers.  A 

Ji?53?  part  of  them  afterwards  had  their  "cabins"  and  their 
"springs"  in  the  neighborhood  of  Winchester.  Their 
principal  band  removed  from  their  hunting-fields  in 

Bonam  Kentucky  to  the  head  waters  of  one  of  the  great  rivers 
of  South  Carolina;  and,  at  a  later  day,  an  encamp- 
ment of  four  hundred  and  fifty  of  them,  who  had  been 

A4dio!r'  straggling  in  the  woods  for  four  years,  was  found  not 
far  north  of  the  head  waters  of  the  Mobile  River,  on 
their  way  to  the  country  of  the  Muskhogees.  It  was 

'Sis!'  about  the  year  1698,  that  three  or  four  score  of  their 
families,  with  the  consent  of  the  government  of  Penn- 
sylvania, removed  from  Carolina,  and  planted  them- 
selves on  the  Susquehannah.  Sad  were  the  fruits  of 
that  hospitality.  Others  followed ;  and  when,  in  1732, 
the  number  of  Indian  fighting  men  in  Pennsylvania 
was  estimated  to  be  seven  hundred,  one  half  of  then? 
were  Shawnee  emigrants.  So 'desolate  was  the  wil- 
derness, that  a  vagabond  tribe  could  wander  undis- 
turbed from  Cumberland  River  to  the  Alabama,  from 
the  head  waters  of  the  Samee  to  the  Susquehannah. 

The  Miamis  were  more  stable,  and  their  own  tra- 
ditions preserve  the  memory  of  their  ancient  limits. 


I.  THE   ALGONQUIN    FAMILY   OF   TRIBES.  241 

uMy  forefather,"  said  the  Miami  orator  Little  Turtle,  CHAR 
at  Greenville,  "kindled  the  first  fire  at  Detroit;  from  — 
thence   he  extended  his  lines  to  the  head  waters  of  A^aenn 
Scioto  :  from  thence  to  its  mouth  ;  from  thence  down  Pftpew, 

.  iv.  570, 

the  Ohio  to  the  mouth  of  the  Wabash  ;  and  from  571 
thence  to  Chicago,  on  Lake  Michigan.  These  are 
the  boundaries  within  which  the  prints  of  my  ances- 
tor's houses  are  every  where  to  be  seen."  And  th^ 
early  French  narratives  confirm  his  words.  The  for- 
ests beyond  Detroit  were  at  first  found  unoccupied,  or, 
it  may  be,  roamed  over  by  bands  too  feeble  to  attract 
a  trader  or  win  a  missionary  ;  the  Ottawas,  Algon- 
quin fugitives  from  the  basin  of  the  magnificent  river 
whose  name  commemorates  them,  fled  to  the  Bay  of 
Saginaw,  and  took  possession  of  the  whole  north  of 
the  peninsula  as  of  a  derelict  country;  yet  the  Mi- 
amis  occupied  its  southern  moiety,  arid  their  principal 
mission  was  founded  by  Alloiiez  on  the  banks  of  the 
St.  Joseph,  within  the  present  state  of  Michigan. 

The  Illinois  were  kindred  to  the  Miamis,  and  their 
country  lay  between  the  Wabash,  the  Ohio,  and  the 
Mississippi.  Marquette  found  a  village  of  them  on  the 
Des  Moines,  but  its  occupants  soon  withdrew  to  the 
east  of  the  Mississippi  ;  and  Kaskaskia,  Cahokia,  Peo- 
ria,  still  preserve  the  names  of  the  principal  bands,  of 
which  the  original  strength  has  been  greatly  exagge- 
rated. The  vague  tales  of  a  considerable  population 
vanished  before  the  accurate  observation  of  the  mis- 
sionaries, who  found  in  the  wide  wilderness  of  Illinois 
scarcely  three  or  four  villages.  On  the  discovery  of 
America,  the  number  of  the  scattered  tenants  of  the  TO. 
territory  which  now  forms  the  states  of  Ohio  and 
Michigan,  of  Indiana,  and  Illinois,  and  Kentucky,  could 
hardly  have  exceeded  eighteen  thousand. 
VOL.  TIT.  31 


L/orii- 


'onti 
Jonte! 


242          SYNOPSIS   OF  THE   TRIBES   EAST  OF   THE  MISSISSIPPI. 

xxlf'       *n  ^e  ear^  Part  °^  ^e  e*ghteenth  century,  the  Po- 
-^  tawatomies  had  crowded  the  Miamis  from  their  dwell- 
ings at  Chicago :  the  intruders  came  from  the  islands 
leas'    near  ^e  entrance  °f  Green  Bay,  and  were  a  branch 
P.  aeo    Qf  tjie  great  nation  of  the  Chippewas.     That  nation, 
or,  as  some  write,  the  Ojibwas, — the  Algonquin  tribes 
of  whose  dialect,  mythology,  traditions,  and  customs, 
we  have  the  fullest  accounts, — held  the  country  from 
the  mouth  of  Green  Bay  to  the  head  waters  of  Lake 
Superior,  and  were  early  visited  by  the  French  at  Sault 
St.  Mary  and  Chegoimegon.     They  adopted  into  their 
tribes  many  of  the  Ottawas  from  Upper  Canada,  and 
were  themselves  often  included  by  the  early  French 
writers  under  that  name. 

Ottawa  is  but  the  Algonquin  word  for  "trader;" 
and  Mascoutins  are  but  "dwellers  in  the  prairie." 
The  latter  hardly  implies  a  band  of  Indians  distinct 
from  other  nations ;  but  history  recognizes,  as  a  sep- 
arate Algonquin  tribe  near  Green  Bay,  the  Menomo- 
nies,  who  were  found  there  in  1669,  who  retained 
their  ancient  territory  long  after  the  period  of  French 
and  of  English  supremacy,  and  who  prove  their  high 
antiquity  as  a  nation  by  the  singular  character  of  their 
dialect. 

South-west  of  the  Menomonies,  the  restless  Sacs 
and  Foxes,  ever  dreaded  by  the  French,  held  the 
passes  from  Green  Bay  and  Fox  River  to  the  Missis- 
sippi, and,  with  insatiate  avidity,  roamed,  in  pursuit  of 
contest,  over  the  whole  country  between  the  Wiscon- 
sin and  the  upper  branches  of  the  Illinois.  The  Shaw- 
nees  are  said  to  have  an  affinity  with  this  nation :  that 
the  Kickapoos,  who  established  themselves,  by  con- 
quest, in  the  north  of  Illinois,  are  but  a  branch  of  it 
is  demonstrated  by  their  speech. 


II.    THE    DAHCOTA    FAMILY   OF   TRIBES.  243 

So  numerous  and  so  widely  extended  were  the  tribes  CHAP. 
of  the  Algonquin  family.     They  were  scattered  over  a  - — - 
moiety,  or  perhaps  more  than  a  moiety,  of  the  territory 
east  of  the  Mississippi  and  south  of  the  St.  Lawrence, 
and  constituted  about  one  half  of  the  original  popula- 
tion of  that  territory. 

II.  North-west  of  the  Sacs  and  Foxes,  west  of  tne 
Chippewas,  bands  of  the  Sioux,  or  DAHCOTAS,  had 
encamped  on  prairies  east  of  the  Mississippi,  vagrants 
between  the  head  waters  of  Lake  Superior  and  the 
Falls  of  St.  Anthony.     They  were  a  branch  of  the 
great  family  which,  dwelling  for  the  most  part  west  of 
the  Mississippi  and  the  Red  River,  extended  from  the 
Saskatchawan  to  lands  south  of  the  Arkansas.     French 
traders  discovered  their  wigwams  in  1659;  Hennepin 
was  among  them,  on  his  expedition  to  the  north;  Jo- 
seph Marest  and  another  Jesuit  visited  them  in  1687, 
and  again  in  1689.     There  seemed  to  exist  a  heredita- 
ry warfare  between  them  and  the  Chippewas.     Their 
relations  to  the  colonists,  whether  of  France  or  Eng- 
land, were,  at  this  early  period,  accidental,  and  related 
chiefly  to  individuals.     But  one  little  community  of  the 
Dahcota  family  had  penetrated  the  territory  of  the  Al- 
gonquins;  the  Winnebagoes,  dwelling  between  Green    .TO*, 
Bay  and  the  lake  that  bears  their  name,  preferred  rath- 
er to  be  environed  by  Algonquins  than  to  stay  in  the 
dangerous  vicinity  of  their  own  kindred.     Like  other 
western  and  southern  tribes,  their  population  appears 

of  late  to  have  greatly  increased. 

III.  The  nations  which  spoke  dialects  of  the  Hu- 
RCN-IROQUOIS,  or,  as  it  has  also  been  called,  of  the 
WYANDOT,  were,  on  the  discovery  of  America,  found 
powerful  in  numbers,  and  diffused  over  a  wide  terri- 
tory.    The  peninsula  enclosed  between  Lakes  Huron, 


244          SYNOPSIS   OF  THE   TRIBES   EAST  OF  THE    MISSISSIPPI. 

CHAP.  Erie,  and  Ontario,  had  been  the  dwelling-place  of  the 
— ~  five  confederated  tribes  of  the  Hurons.  After  their 
defeat  by  the  Five  Nations,  a  part  descended  the  St. 
Lawrence,  and  their  progeny  may  still  be  seen  near 
Quebec ;  a  part  were  adopted,  on  equal  terms,  into 
the  tribes  of  their  conquerors ;  the  Wyandots  fled  be- 
yond Lake  Superior,  and  hid  themselves  in  the  dreary 
wastes  that  divided  the  Chippewas  from  their  western 
foes.  In  1671,  they  retreated  before  the  powerful 
Sioux,  and  made  their  home  first  at  St.  Mary's  and  at 
Michilimackinac,  and  afterwards  near  the  post  of  De- 
troit. Thus  the  Wyandots  within  our  borders  were 
emigrants  from  Canada.  Having  a  mysterious  influ- 
ence over  the  Algonquin  tribes,  and  making  treaties 
with  the  Five  Nations,  they  spread  along  Lake  Erie , 
and,  leaving  to  the  Miamis  the  country  beyond  the 
Miami  of  the  Lakes,  they  gradually  acquired  a  claim 
to  the  whole  territory  from  that  river  to  the  western 
boundary  of  New  York. 

The  immediate  dominion  of  the  Iroquois — where  the 
Mohawks,  Oneidas,  Onondagas,  Cayugas,  and  Senecas, 
were  first  visited  by  the  trader,  the  missionary,  or  the 
war  parties  of  the  French — stretched,  as  we  have  seen, 
from  the  borders  of  Vermont  to  Western  New  York, 
from  the  lakes  to  the  head  waters  of  the  Ohio,  the 
Susquehannah,  and  the  Delaware.  The  number  of 
^o.  their  warriors  was  declared  by  the  French,  in  1660,  to 
307-609.  have  been  two  thousand  two  hundred;  and,  in  1677, 
an  English  agent,  sent  on  purpose  to  ascertain  their 
strength,  confirmed  the  precision  of  the  statement. 
Their  geographical  position  made  them  umpires  in  the 
contest  of  the  French  for  dominion  in  the  west.  Be- 
sides, their  political  importance  was  increased  by  their 
conquests.  Not  only  did  they  claim  some  supremacy 


HI.  THE   HURON-1ROQUO1S    FAMILY   OF   TRIBES.  245 

in  Northern  New  England  as  far  as   the  Kennebec,  CHAP 

and  to  the  south  as  far   as  New  Haven,   and   were • 

acknowledged  as  absolute  lords  over  the  conquered 
Lenape,  —  the  peninsula  of  Upper  Canada  was  their 
hunting-field  by  right  of  war ;  they  had  exterminated 
or  reduced  the  Eries  and  the  Connestogas,  both  tribes 
of  their  own  family,  the  one  dwelling  to  the  south  of 
Lake  Erie,  the  other  on  the  banks  of  the  Susquehan- 
nah ;  they  had  triumphantly  invaded  the  tribes  of  the 
west  as  far  as  Illinois ;  their  warriors  had  reached  the 
soil  of  Kentucky  and  Western  Virginia ;  and  England, 
to  whose  alliance  they  steadily  inclined,  availed  itself 
of  their  treaties  for  the  cession  of  territories,  to  en- 
croach even  on  the  empire  of  France  in  America. 

Nor  had  the  labors  of  the  Jesuit  missionaries  been 
fruitless.  The  few  families  of  the  Iroquois  who  mi- 
grated to  the  north  of  Lake  Ontario,  and  raised  their 
huts  round  Fort  Frontenac,  remained  in  amity  with 
the  French ;  and  two  villages  of  Iroquois  converts,  the 
Cahnewagas  of  New  England  writers,  were  established 
near  Montreal,  a  barrier  against  their  heathen  country- 
men and  against  New  York. 

The  Huron  tribes  of  the  north  were  environed  by 
Algonquins.  At  the  south,  the  Chowan,  the  Meherrin, 
the  Nottoway,  villages  of  the  Wyandot  family,  have 
left  their  names  to  the  rivers  along  which  they  dwelt ; 
and  the  Tuscaroras,  kindred  with  the  Five  Nations, 
were  the  most  powerful  tribe  in  North  Carolina.  In 
1708,  its  fifteen  towns  still  occupied  the  upper  country 
on  the  Neuse  and  the  Tar,  and  could  count  twelve 
nundred  warriors,  as  brave  as  their  Mohawk  brothers. 

IV.  South  of  the  Tuscaroras,  the  midlands  of  Caro- 
lina sheltered  the  CATAWBAS.  Its  villages  included 
the  Woccons  and  the  nation  spoke  a  language  of  its 


246   IV.  THE  CATAWBA  FAMILY.  — V.  THE  CHEROKEE  FAMILY. 

CHAP,  own:  that  language  is  now  almost  extinct,  being 
- — ~  known  only  to  less  than  one  hundred  persons,  who 
linger  on  the  banks  of  a  branch  of  the  Santee.  Imagi- 
nation never  assigned  to  the  Catawbas,  in  their  proud- 
est  days,  more  than  twelve  hundred  and  fifty  warriors; 
the  oldest  enumeration  was  made  in  1743,  and  gives 
but  four  hundred.  It  may  therefore  be  inferred,  that, 
on  the  first  appearance  of  Europeans,  their  language 
was  in  the  keeping  of  not  more  than  three  thousand 
souls.  History  knows  them  chiefly  as  the  hereditary 
foes  of  the  Iroquois  tribes,  before  whose  prowess  and 
numbers  they  dwindled  away. 

V.  The  mountaineers  of  aboriginal  America  were 
the  CHEROKEES,  who  occupied  the  upper  valley  of  the 
Tennessee  River,  as  far  west  as  Muscle  Shoals,  and 
the  highlands  of  Carolina,  Georgia,  and  Alabama — 
the  most  picturesque  and  most  salubrious  region  east 
of  the  Mississippi.  Their  homes  were  encircled  by 
blue  hills  rising  beyond  hills,  of  which  the  lofty  peaks 
would  kindle  with  the  early  light,  and  the  overshad- 
owing ridges  envelop  the  valleys  like  a  mass  of  clouds 
There  the  rocky  cliffs,  rising  in  naked  grandeur,  defy 
the  lightning,  and  mock  the  loudest  peals  of  the  thun- 
der-storm ;  there  the  gentler  slopes  are  covered  with 
magnolias  and  flowering  forest-trees,  decorated  with 
roving  climbers,  and  ring  with  the  perpetual  note  of 
the  whip-poor-will ;  there  the  wholesome  water  gushes 
profusely  from  the  earth  in  transparent  springs ;  snow- 
white  cascades  glitter  on  the  hill-sides;  and  the  rivers, 
shallow,  but  pleasant  to  the  eye,  rush  through  the  nar- 
row vales,  which  the  abundant  strawberry  crimsons,  and 
coppices  of  rhododendron  and  flaming  azalea  adorn. 
At  the  fall  of  the  leaf,  the  fruit  of  the  hickory  and  the 
chestnut  is  thickly  strovvn  on  the  ground.  The  fer- 


V.  THE  CHEROKEE  FAMILY  OF  TRIBES  —VI.  .THE  UCHEES.      247 

tile  soil   teems  with  luxuriant  herbage,  on  which  the  CHAP. 

XXII 

roebuck  fattens;  the  vivifying  breeze  is  laden  with  ~~*~^ 
fragrance;  and  daybreak  is  ever  welcomed  by  the 
shrill  cries  of  the  social  nighthawk  and  the  liquid  car- 
ols of  the  mocking-bird.  Through  this  lovely  region 
were  scattered  the  little  villages  of  the  Cherokees, 
nearly  fifty  in  number,  each  consisting  of  but  a  few 
cabins,  erected  where  the  bend  in  the  mountain  stream 
offered  at  once  a  defence  and  a  strip  of  alluvial  soil  for 
culture.  Their  towns  were  always  by  the  side  of  some 
creek  or  river,  and  they  loved  their  native  land ;  above 
all,  they  loved  its  rivers — the  Keowee,  the  Tugeloo, 
the  Flint,  and  the  beautiful  branches  of  the  Tennessee. 
Running  waters,  inviting  to  the  bath,  tempting  the 
angler,  alluring  wild  fowl,  were  necessary  to  their 
paradise.  Their  language,  like  that  of  the  Troquois, 
abounds  in  vowels,  and  is  destitute  of  the  labials.  Its 
organization  has  a  common  character,  but  etymology 
has  not  yet  been  able  to  discover  conclusive  analogies 
bet\veen  the  roots  of  words.  The  "beloved"  people 
of  the  Cherokees  were  a  nation  by  themselves.  Who 
can  say  for  how  many  centuries,  safe  in  their  undiscov- 
ered fastnesses,  they  had  decked  their  war-chiefs  with 
the  feathers  of  the  eagle's  tail,  and  listened  to  the 
counsels  of  their  "old  beloved  men"?  Who  can  tell 
how  often  the  waves  of  barbarous  migrations  may  have 
broken  harmlessly  against  their  cliffs,  where  nature  was 
the  strong  ally  of  the  defenders  of  their  land? 

VI.  South-east  of  the  Cherokees  dwelt  the  UCHEES. 
They  claimed  the  country  above  and  below  Augusta, 
and,  at  the  earliest  period  respecting  which  we  can 
surmise,  seem  not  to  have  extended  beyond  the  Cha- 
ta-hoo-chee ;  yet  they  boast  to  have  been  the  oldest 
inhabitants  of  that  region.  They  now  constitute  an 


248          SYNOPSIS   OF   THE   TRIBES   EAST   OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI. 

CHAP,  inconsiderable    band  in   the  Creek  confederacy,    and 

XXII 

-  -  are  known  as  a  distinct  family,  not  from  political 
organization,  but  from  their  singularly  harsh  and  gut- 
tural language.  When  first  discovered,  thty  were  but 
a  remnant,  —  bewildering  the  inquirer  by  favoring  the 
conjecture,  that,  from  the  north  and  west,  tribe  may 
have  pressed  upon  tribe  ;  that  successions  of  nations 
may  have  been  exterminated  by  invading  nations  ;  that 
even  languages,  which  are  the  least  perishable  monu- 
ment of  the  savages,  may  have  become  extinct. 

VII.  The  NATCHEZ,  also,  are  now  merged  in  the 
same  confederacy;  but  they,  with  the  Taensas,  were 
known  to  history  as  a  distinct  nation,  residing  in 
scarcely  more  than  four  or  five  villages,  of  which  the 
largest  rose  near  the  banks  of  the  Mississippi.  That 
Du  they  spoke  but  a  dialect  of  the  Mobilian,  is  an  infer- 
ence  which  the  memoirs  of  Dumont  would  have  war 
ranted,  and  which  more  recent  travellers  have  con- 

andaBar-  firmed,  without  reservation,  —  while  the  diffuse  Du  Pratz 

ram* 

DU     represents  them  as  using  at  once  the  Mobilian  and  a 
radically  different  speech  of  their  own.     The  mission- 


tram* 

DU 


,  ary  station  among  them  was  assigned  to  Franciscans; 
and  the  Jesuits  who  have  written  of  them  are  silent 


LC  Petit,  respecting  the  tongue,  which  they  themselves  had  no 
E^t'iv.  occasion  to  employ.  The  opinion  of  the  acute  Va- 
ter  was  in  favor  of  its  original  character  ;  and,  by  the 
persevering  curiosity  of  Gallatin,  it  is  at  last  known 
that  the  Natchez  were  distinguished  from  the  tribes 
around  them  less  by  their  customs  and  the  degree  of 
their  civilization  than  by  their  language,  which>  as  far 
as  comparisons  have  been  instituted,  has  no  etymologi- 
cal affinity  with  any  other  whatever.  Here,  again,  the 
imagination  too  readily  kindles  to  invent  theories;  and 
the  tradition  has  been  widelv  received,  that  the  domin- 


VIII.    THE  MOBILIAN  FAMILY   OF  TRIBES  249 

ion  of  the  Natchez  once  extended  even  to  the  Wabash ,  CHAP. 
that  they  are  emigrants  from  Mexico;  that  they  are  — — 
the  kindred  of  the  incas  of  Peru.  The  close  observa- 
tion of  the  state  of  the  arts  among  them,  tends  to  dis- 
pel these  illusions;  and  history  knows  them  only  as  a 
feeble  and  inconsiderable  nation,  the  occupants  of  a 
narrow  territory  round  the  spot  where  the  Christian 
church,  and  the  dwellings  of  emigrants  from  Europe 
and  from  Africa,  have  displaced  the  rude  abode  of 
their  Great  Sun,  and  the  artless  cabin  of  the  chosen 
guardians  of  the  sacred  fire,  which  they  vainly  hoped 
should  never  die. 

VIII.  With  these  exceptions  of  the  Uchees  and  the 
Natchez,  the  whole  country  south-east,  south,  and 
west  of  the  Cherokees,  to  the  Atlantic  and  the  Gulf 
of  Mexico,  to  the  Mississippi  and  the  confluence  of  the 
Tennessee  and  Ohio,  was  in  the  possession  of  one 
great  family  of  nations,  of  which  the  language  was 
named  by  the  French  the  MOBILIAN,  and  is  described 
by  Gallatin  as  the  MUSKHOGEE-CHOCTA.  It  included 
three  considerable  confederacies,  each  of  which  still  ex- 
ists, and  perhaps  even  with  some  increase  of  numbers. 

The  country  bounded  on  the  Ohio  at  the  north,  on 
the  Mississippi  at  the  west,  on  the  east  by  a  line  drawn 
from  the  bend  in  the  Cumberland  River  to  the  Muscle 
Shoals  of  the  Tennessee,  and  extending  at  the  south 
into  the  territory  of  the  state  of  Mississippi,  was  the 
land  of  the  cheerful,  brave  Chickasas,  the  faithful,  tho 
invincible  allies  of  the  English.  Marquette  found 
them  already  in  possession  of  guns,  obtained  probably 
through  Virginia ;  La  Salle  built  Fort  Prudhomme  on 
one  of  their  bluffs ;  but  their  chosen  abodes  were  on 
the  upland  country,  which  gives  birth  to  the  Yazoo 
and  the  Tombecbee,  the  finest  and  most  fruitful  on  the 
VOL.  HI.  32 


250         SYNOPSIS   OF  THE   TRIBES   EAST  OF  THE    MISSISSIPPI 

CHAP  continent, — where  the  grass  is  verdant  in  midwinter; 

— v^  the  olue-bird  and  the  robin  are  heard  in  February ;  the 
springs  of  pure  water  gurgle  up  through  the  white 
sands,  to  flow  through  natural  bowers  of  evergreen 
holly ;  and,  if  the  earth  be  but  carelessly  gashed  to 
receive  the  kernel  of  maize,  the  thick  corn  springs 
abundantly  from  the  fertile  soil.  The  region  is  as 
happy  as  any  beneath  the  sun ;  and  the  love  which  it 
inspired  made  its  occupants,  though  not  numerous,  yet 
the  most  intrepid  warriors  of  the  south. 

Below  the  Chickasas,  between  the  Mississippi  and 
the  Tombecbee,  was  the  land  of  the  Choctas,  who 
were  gathered,  on  the  eastern  frontier,  into  compact 
villages,  but  elsewhere  were  scattered  through  the  in- 
terior of  their  territory.  Dwelling  in  plains  or  among 
gentle  hills,  they  excelled  every  North  American  tribe 
in  their  agriculture, — subsisting  chiefly  on  corn,  and 
placing  little  dependence  on  the  chase.  Their  country 
was  healthful,  abounding  in  brooks.  The  number  of 
their  warriors  perhaps  exceeded  four  thousand.  Their 
dialect  of  the  Mobilian  so  nearly  resembles  that  of  the 
Chickasas,  that  they  almost  seemed  but  one  nation. 
The  Choctas  were  allies  of  the  French,  yet  preserving 
their  independence :  their  love  for  their  country  was 
intense,  and,  in  defending  it,  they  utterly  contemned 
danger. 

The  ridge  that  divided  the  Tombecbee  from  the 
Alabama,  was  the  line  that  separated  the  Choctas  from 
the  groups  of  tribes  which  were  soon  united  in  the 
confederacy  of  the  Creeks  or  Muskhogees.  Their  ter- 
ritory, including  all  Florida,  reached,  on  the  north,  to 
the  Cherokees ;  on  the  north-east  and  east,  to  the 

Robert.'  country  on  the  Savannah  and  to  the  Atlantic.     Along 

Florida,  t|ie  gea^  their  northern  limit  seems  to  have  extended 


VUI.    THE    MOBILIAN   FAMILY  OF   TRIBES.  251 

almost  to  Cape  Fear ;  at  least,  the  tribes  with  which  CHAP 

the   settlers  at  Charleston  first  waged  war,  are  enu- 

merated  by  one  writer  as  branches  of  the  Muskhogees. 
Their  population,  spread  over  a  fourfold  wider  territo- 
ry, did  not  exceed  that  of  the  Choctas  in   number.  Bernard 
Their  towns  were  situated  on  the  banks  of  beautiful    m^a 

Hist,  of 

creeks,  in  which  their  country  abounded  ;  the  waters  F1°9'jda 
of  their  bold  rivers,  from  the  Coosa  to  the  Chatahoo- 
chee,  descended  rapidly,  with  a  clear  current,  through 
healthful  and  fertile  regions ;  they  were  careful  in 
their  agriculture,  and,  before  going  to  war,  assisted 
their  women  to  plant.  In  Florida,  they  welcomed  the 
Spanish  missionaries ;  and,  throughout  their  country, 
they  derived  so  much  benefit  from  the  arts  of  civiliza- 
tion, that  their  numbers  soon  promised  to  increase ; 
and,  being  placed  between  the  English  of  Carolina, 
the  French  of  Louisiana,  the  Spaniards  of  Florida, — 
bordering  on  the  Choctas,  the  Chickasas,  and  the 
Cherokees, — their  political  importance  made  them 
esteemed  as  the  most  powerful  Indian  nation  north  of 
the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  They  readily  gave  shelter  to  fu- 
gitives from  other  tribes  ;  and  their  speech  became  so 
modified,  that,  with  radical  resemblances,  it  has  the 
widest  departure  from  its  kindred  dialects.  The 
Yamassees,  on  the  Savannah,  seem  certainly  to  have 
been  one  of  their  bands;  and  the  Seminoles  of  Florida 
are  but  "wild  men,"  lost  from  their  confederacy,  and 
abandoning  agriculture  for  the  chase. 

Such  is  a  synopsis  of  the  American  nations  east  ol 
the  Mississippi.  It  is  not  easy  to  estimate  their  prob- 
able numbers  at  the  period  of  their  discovery.  Many 
of  them — the  Narragansetts,  the  Illinois — boasted  of 
the  superior,  strength  of  their  former  condition;  and, 
from  wonder,  from  fear,  from  the  ambition  of  exciting 


252      POPULATION    OF   THE    TRIBES    EAST   OF    THE    MISSISSIPPI. 

CHAP,  surprise,  early  travellers  often  repeated  the  exaggera- 
-  '  tions  of  savage  vanity.  The  Hurons  of  Upper  Canada 
were  thought  to  number  many  more  than  thirty  thou- 
sand, perhaps  even  fifty  thousand,  souls  ;  yet,  according 
t£?7o.  to  tne  more  exact  enumeration  of  1639,  they  could  not 
have  exceeded  ten  thousand.  In  the  heart  of  a  wil- 
derness, a  few  cabins  seemed  like  a  city;  and  to  the 
pilgrim,  who  had  walked  for  weeks  without  meeting  a 
human  being,  a  territory  would  appear  densely  peopled 
where,  in  every  few  days,  a  wigwam  could  be  encoun- 
tered. Vermont,  and  North-western  Massachusetts, 
and  much  of  New  Hampshire,  were  solitudes  ;  Ohio,  a 
part  of  Indiana,  the  largest  part  of  Michigan,  remained 
open  to  Indian  emigration  long  after  America  began 
to  be  colonized  by  Europeans.  From  the  portage  be- 
tween the  Fox  and  the  Wisconsin  to  the  Des  Moines, 
Marquette  saw  neither  the  countenance  nor  the  foot- 
LC  step  of  man.  In  Illinois,  so  friendly  to  the  habits  of 
savage  life?  tne  Franciscan  Zenobe  Mambre,  whose 


journal  is  preserved  by  Le  Clercq,  describes  the  "only 
NOH-    large  village,"  as  containing  seven  or  eight  thousand 
a!Tra!'  SOLU|S  ;  Father  Rasle  imagined  he  had  seen  in  one  place 
Ed6";    twelve  hundred  fires,  kindled  for  more  than  two  thou- 
m    sand  families:  other  missionaries  who  made  their  abode 
there  describe  their  appalling  journeys  through  abso- 
lute solitudes  ;  they  represent  their  vocation  as  a  chase 
after  a  savage,  that  was  scarce  ever  to  be  found  ;  and 
they  could  gather  hardly  five,  or  even  three,  villages  in 
the  whole  region.     Kentucky,  after  the  expulsion  of 
the  Shawnees,  remained  the  wide  park  of  the  Chero- 
kees.     The  banished  tribe  easily  fled  up  the  valley  of 
the  Cumberland    River,   to    find  a  vacant  wilderness 
in  the  highlands  of  Carolina;  and  a  part.  of  them  for 
years  roved  to  and   fro  in  wildernesses  west  of  the 


POPULATION    OF  THE    TRIBES    EAS1    OF    THE    MISSISSIPPI.      253 

Cherokees.     On  early  maps,  the  low  country  from  the  CHAP 

Jv^vll* 

Mobile  to  Florida  is  marked  as  vacant.  The  oldest  ^^- 
reports  from  Georgia  exult  in  the  entire  absence  of  In- 
dians from  the  vicinity  of  Savannah,  and  will  not  admit 
that  there  were  more  than  a  few  within  four  hundred 
miles.  There  are  hearsay  and  vague  accounts  of  In- 
dian war  parties  composed  of  many  hundreds:  those 
who  wrote  from  knowledge  furnish  the  means  of  com- 
parison and  correction.  The  whole  population  of  the 
Five  Nations  could  not  have  varied  much  from  ten 
thousand ;  and  their  warriors  strolled  as  conquerors 
from  Hudson's  Bay  to  Carolina, — from  the  Kennebec 
to  the  Tennessee.  Very  great  uncertainty  must,  in- 
deed, attend  any  estimate  of  the  original  number  of  In- 
dians east  of  the  Mississippi  and  south  of  the  St.  Law- 
rence and  the  chain  of  lakes.  The  diminution  of  their 
population  is  far  less  than  is  usually  supposed :  they 
have  been  exiled,  but  not  exterminated.  The  use  of 
iron,  of  gunpowder,  of  horses,  has  given  to  the  savage 
dominion  over  the  beasts  of  the  forest,  and  new  power 
over  nature.  The  Cherokee  and  Mobilian  families  of 
nations  are  more  numerous  now  than  ever.  We  shall 
approach,  and  perhaps  exceed,  a  just  estimate  of  their  °°£~ 
numbers  two  hundred  years  ago,  if  to  the  various  tribes 
of  the  Algonquin  race  we  allow  about  ninety  thousand ; 
of  the  Eastern  Sioux,  less  than  three  thousand ;  of  the 
Iroquois,  including  their  southern  kindred,  about  seven- 
teen thousand ;  of  the  Catawbas,  three  thousand ;  of 
the  Cherokees,  twelve  thousand ;  of  the  Mobilian  con- 
federacies and  tribes, — that  is,  of  the  Chickasas,  Choc- 
tas,  and  Muskhogees, — fifty  thousand ;  of  the  Uchees, 
one  thousand ;  of  the  Natchez,  four  thousand  ; — in  all, 
it  may  be,  not  far  from  one  hundred  and  -eighty  thou- 
sand souls. 


Relation 


254      LANGUAGES  OF  THE  RED  MEN  EAST  OF  THE  MISSISSIPPI. 

CHAP.  The  s;udy  of  the  structure  of  the  dialects  of  the  red 
men  sheds  light  on  the  inquiry  into  their  condition. 
Language  is  their  oldest  monument,  and  the  record 
and  image  of  their  experience.  No  savage  horde  has 
been  caught  with  it  in  a  state  of  chaos,  or  as  if  just 
emerging  from  the  rudeness  of  undistinguishable 
sounds.  No  American  language  bears  marks  of  being 
an  arbitrary  aggregation,  of  separate  parts;  but  each  is 
possessed  of  an  entire  organization,  having  unity  of 

leas,  character,  and  controlled  by  exact  rules.  Each  ap- 
pears, not  as  a  slow  formation  by  painful  processes  of 
invention,  but  as  a  perfect  whole,  springing  directly 
from  the  powers  of  man.  A  savage  physiognomy  is 
imprinted  on  the  dialect  of  the  dweller  in  the  wilder- 
ness ;  but  each  dialect  is  still  not  only  free  from  con- 
fusion, but  is  almost  absolutely  free  from  irregularities, 
and  is  pervaded  and  governed  by  undeviating  laws. 
As  the  bee  builds  his  cells  regularly,  yet  without  the 
recognition  of  the  rules  of  geometry,  so  the  unreflect- 
ing savage,  in  the  use  of  words,  had  rule,  and  method, 
and  completeness.  His  speech,  like  every  thing  else, 
underwent  change ;  but  human  pride  errs  in  believing 
that  the  art  of  cultivated  man  was  needed  to  resolve  it 
into  its  elements,  and  give  to  it  new  forms,  before  it 
could  fulfil  its  office.  Each  American  language  was 
competent,  of  itself,  without  improvement  from  schol- 
ars, to  exemplify  every  rule  of  the  logician,  and  give 
utterance  to  every  passion.  Each  dialect  that  has  been 
analyzed  has  been  found  to  be  rich  in  derivatives  and 
compounds,  in  combinations  and  forms.  As  certain  as 
every  plant  which  draws  juices  from  the  earth  has 
roots  and  sap  vessels,  bark  and  leaves,  so  certainly 
each  language  has  its  complete  organization, — inclu- 
ding the  same  parts  of  speech,  though  some  of  them 


LANGUAGES  OF  THE   RED  MEN   EAST  OF  THE  MISSISSIPPI.     255 

may  lie  concealed  in  mutual  coalitions.     Human  con-  CHAP. 

•  11  -  -T        X*11' 

sciousness  and  human  speech  exist  every  where,  mdis-  ^v^ 
solubly  united.     A  tribe  has  no  more  been  found  with- 
out an  organized  language,  than  without  eyesight  or 
memory. 

The  American  savage  has  tongue,  and  palate,  and 
lips,  and  throat;  the  power  to  utter  flowing  sounds, 
the  power  to  hiss:  hence  the  primitive  sounds  are  es- 
sentially the  same.  The  savage  had,  indeed,  never 
attempted  their  analysis ;  but  the  analogies  are  so 
close,  that  they  may  almost  all  be  expressed  by  the 
alphabet  of  European  use.  The  tribes  vary  in  their 
capacity  or  their  custom  of  expressing  sounds  :  the 
Oneidas  always  changed  the  letter  r;  the  rest  of  the 
Iroquois  tribes  rejected  the  letter  /.  The  Algonquins  Hinon 
have  no  f;  the  whole  Iroquois  family  never  use  the  ,££"£ 

(luebec 

semivowel  m,  and   want   the   labials   entirely.     The  LU.  and 

*  Hist. 

Cherokees,  also,  employing  the  semivowels,  are  in  like  iS"^ 
manner  destitute  of  the  labials.  Of  the  several  dialects 
of  the  Iroquois,  that  of  the  Oneidas  is  the  most  soft, 
being  the  only  one  that  admits  the  letter  /;  that  of  the 
Senecas  is  rudest  and  most  energetic.  The  Algonquin 
dialects,  especially  those  of  the  Abenakis,  heap  up  con- 
sonants with  prodigal  harshness;  the  Iroquois  abound 
in  a  concurrence  of  vowels;  in  the  Cherokee,  every 
syllable  ends  with  a  vowel,  and  the  combinations  with 
consonants  are  so  few  and  so  simple,  that  the  "old  be- 
loved speech,"  like  the  Japanese,  admits  a  syllabic  al- 
phabet, of  which  the  signs  need  not  exceed  eighty-five. 
Quickened  by  conversation  with  Europeans,  Se- 
quoah,  an  ingenious  Cherokee,  recently  completed  an 
analysis  of  the  syllables  of  his  language,  and  invented 
symbols  to  express  them.  But,  before  acquaintance 
with  Europeans,  no  red  man  had  discriminated  the 


256      LANGUAGES  OF  THE  RED  MEN  EAST  OF  THE  MISSISSIPPI. 

CHAP  sounds  which  he  articulated  :  in  all  America  there  was 

XXII 

^^-  no  alphabet,  and  to  the  eye  knowledge  was  conveyed 
only  by  rude  imitations.  In  a  picture  of  an  animal 
drawn  on  a  sheet  of  birch  bark,  or  on  a  smooth  stone, 
or  on  a  blazed  tree,  an  Indian  will  recognize  the  sym- 
bol  of  his  tribe;  and  the  figures  that  are  sketched 
aroun(^  wiM  giye  hi*11  a  message  from  his  friends.  Pic- 
torial  hieroglyphics  were  found  in  all  parts  of  America, 
Ci836,'  —  in  Southern  Louisiana,  and  in  the  land  of  the  Wyan- 

146   1  47. 

Mi'S  dots,  among  Algonquins  and  Mohawks.     The  rudest 
m?aai.  painting,  giving  its  story  at  a  glance,  constituted  the 
only  writing  of  the  Indian. 

As  his  mode  of  writing  was  by  imitation  of  visible 
objects,  so  his  language  itself  was  held  in  bonds  by  ex- 
ternal nature.  Abounding  in  words  to  designate  every 
SaofS!  object  of  experience,  it  had  none  to  express  a  spiritual 
conception  ;  materialism  reigned  in  it.  The  individu- 
ality of  the  barbarian  and  of  his  tribe,  stamps  itself  up- 
on his  language.  Nature  creates  or  shapes  expressions 
for  his  sensations  and  his  desires,  and  his  language  was 
always  vastly  copious  in  words  for  objects  within  his 
knowledge,  for  ideas  derived  from  the  senses  ;  but  for 
"  spiritual  matters  "  it  was  poor;  it  had  no  name  for 
continence  or  justice,  for  gratitude  or  holiness.  That 
each  American  language  has  been  successfully  used  by 
Christian  missionaries,  comes  not  from  an  original  store 
of  words  expressing  moral  truth,  but  from  the  recipro- 
cal pliability  of  ideas  and  their  signs.  It  required,  said 
Loskiel,  the  labor  of  years  to  make  the  Delaware  dia- 
lect capable  of  expressing  abstract  truth;  it  was  neces- 
sary to  forge  a  new  language  out  of  existing  terms  by 
circumlocutions  and  combinations  ;  and  it  was  the 
com-  glory  of  Eliot,  that  his  benevolent  simplicity  intuitively 
caught  the  analogies  by  which  moral  truth  could  be 


e^ 
*' 


SYNTHETIC    CHARACTER    OF    THE    INDIAN    LANGUAGES.        257 

conveyed  to  nations  whose  language  had  not  yet  eman-  CHAP 
cipated  itself  from  nature. 

In  another  point  of  view,  this  materialism  contribu- 
ted greatly  to  the  picturesque  brilliancy  of  American 
discourse.     Prosperity  is  as  a  bright  sun  or  a  cloudless 
sky ;  to  establish  peace,  is  to  plant  a  forest-tree,  or  to 
bury  the  tomahawk ;  to  offer  presents  as  a  consolation 
to  mourners,  is  to  cover  the  grave  of  the  departed ;  and 
if  the  Indian  from  the  prairies  would  speak  of  griefs 
and  hardships,  it  is  the  thorns  of  the  prickly  pear  that  sSwm 
penetrate  his  moccasons.     Especially  the  style  of  the  ioS% 
Six  Nations  was  adorned  with  noble  metaphors,  and   Tran8* 
glowed  with  allegory. 

If  we  search   for  the  distinguishing  traits  of  oui 
American  languages,  we  shall  find  the  synthetic  char 
acter  pervading  them  all,  and  establishing  their  rules. 
The  American  does  not  separate  the  component  parts 
of  the  proposition  which  he  utters;  he  never  analyzes 
his  expressions;   his   thoughts  rush  forth  in  a   troop. 
The  picture  is  presented  at  once  and  altogether.     His 
speech  is  as  a  kindling  cloud,  not  as  radiant  points  of 
light.     This  absence  of  all  reflective  consciousness, 
and  of  all  logical  analysis  of  ideas,  is  the  great  pecu- 
liarity of  American  speech.     Every  complex  idea   is  j^'f 
expressed  in  a  group.     Synthesis  governs  every  form ;    c*n. 
it  pervades  all  the  dialects  of  the  Iroquois  and  the  Al-  Njtnef't~ 
gonquin,  and  equally  stamps  the  character  of  the  Ian-  ^SJSi. 
guage  of  the  Cherokee.  S«B. 

This  synthetic  character  is  apparent  in  the  attempt  to 
express,  in  the  simplest  manner,  the  name  of  any  thing. 
The  Algonquin,  the  Iroquois,  could  not  say  father;  they 
must  use  a  more  definite  expression.  Their  nouns  im- 
plying relation,  says  Brebeuf,  always  include  the  sig- 
nification ol  one  of  the  three  persons  of  the  possessive 
VOL.  in.  33 


258      LANGUAGES  OF  THE  RED  MEN   EAST  OF  THE   MISSISSIPPI 

CHAP,  pronoun.     They  cannot  say  father,  son,  master,  sepa- 

rately ;  the  noun  must  be  limited  by  including  within 

itself  the  pronoun  for  the  person  to  whom  it  relates. 
The  missionaries  could  not,  therefore,  translate  the 
doxology  literally,  but  chanted  among  the  Hurons,  and 
doubtless  at  Onondaga,  "  Glory  be  to  our  Father,  and 
Hl8LUf|  to  his  Son,  and  to  their  Holy  Ghost." 

Just  so,  the  savage  could  not  say  tree,  or  house ;  the 
word  must  always  be  accompanied  by  prefixes  defining 
?  *ts  aPplicati°n«     The  only  pronoun  which  can,  with 
any  plausibility,  be  called  an  article,  is  always  blended 


maraxv.  with  the  noun. 


In  like  manner,  the  languages  are  defective  in  terms 
that  express  generalizations.  Our  forests  abound,  for 
example,  in  various  kinds  of  oak :  the  Algonquins  have 
special  terms  for  each  kind  of  oak,  but  no  generic  term 
including  them  all.  The  same  is  even  true  of  the 
verb.  No  activity  is  generalized;  and  hence  come 
multitudes  of  words  to  express  the  same  action,  as 
modified  by  changes  of  its  object.  So,  too,  they  have 
no  noun  expressing  simply  the  idea  of  existence ;  the 
idea  is  always  blended  with  locality.  And,  in  this 
connection,  it  may  be  added,  that  not  one  of  the  fami- 
lies of  languages  of  which  we  treat  possessed  the  sim- 
ple substantive  verb.  As  the  idea  of  being,  when  ex- 
pressed by  a  noun,  was  always  blended  with  that  of 
place,  so  the  verb  to  be  was  never  used  abstractly,  but 
included  within  itself  the  idea  of  place  and  time.  Thus 
arises  a  marvellous  fertility  of  expression,  and  a  won- 
derful precision;  and  yet  this  very  copiousness  is  a 
defect,  springing  from  the  total  want  of  reflection  and 
analysis. 

The  same  synthetic  character  appears  in  the  forma- 
tion of  words.  The  noun  receives  into  itself  not  only 


SYNTHETIC  CHARACTER  OF  THE  AMERICAN    LANGUAGES.      25? 

the  affixed  forms  designating  relation,  but  those  also  CHAP 
which  express  a  quality.     The  noun  and  the  adjective  -  - 


are,  with  the  pronoun,  blended  into  one  word.  The 
power  of  combination,  common  to  every  original  lan- 
guage, is  possessed  in  an  unlimited  degree  ;  and,  as  a 
new  object  is  presented  to  an  Indian,  he  will  inquire 
its  use,  and  promptly  give  it  a  name,  including  within 
itself,  perhaps,  an  entire  definition.  The  Indian  never 
kneels;  so,  when  Eliot  translated  kneeling,  the  word 
which  he  was  compelled  to  form  fills  a  line,  and  num- 
bers eleven  syllables.  As,  in  early  days,  books  were 
written  in  unbroken  lines,  without  any  division  of  the 
parts  of  a  sentence,  so  the  savage,  in  his  speech,  runs 
word  into  word,  till  at  last  a  single  one  appears  to  in- 
clude the  whole  proposition.  By  this  process  of  ag- 
gregation, a  simple  root  is  often  buried  beneath  its 
environments  ;  rapidity  of  movement  and  grace  are 
lost;  and  speech  is  encumbered  with  the  expressive 
masses  which  it  has  heaped  together.  The  words 
that  enter  into  the  compound  are  not  melted  into  each 
other  ;  nothing  resembling  a  chemical  affinity  takes 
place  ;  but  the  compound  word  is  like  patchwork  ;  the 
masses  that  are  joined  together  remain  heterogeneous. 
The  union  resembles  clumsy  mechanism,  where  the 
contrivance  lies  bare,  and  forces  itself  upon  the  eye. 
The  cultivated  man,  with  select  instruments,  expresses 
every  idea  ;  the  savage  is  forever  coining  words  ;  and 
the  original  character  of  his  language  permits  him  to 
multiply  them  at  will. 

Still  more  is  the  character  of  synthesis  observable  in 
the  pronoun.  That  part  of  speech  hardly  existed  in  a 
separated  form  —  at  least,  in  a  separate  form,  was 
rarely  in  use.  Its  principal  office,  in  the  Algonquin 
dialects,  is  to  define  the  relations  of  the  noun  and  the 


260      LANGUAGES   OF  THE   RED  MEN   EAST  OF  THE  MISSISSIPPI. 

CHAP  verb.  The  pronoun  knows  no  distinction  of  genders 
- — '-  for  male  and  female ;  one  form  is  common  to  both ; 
another  form  is  for  the  neuter,  as  in  Latin  there  is 
sometimes  a  common  gender,  in  contradistinction  to 
the  neuter.  Hence,  as  nouns  are  always  used  in  con- 
nection with  pronouns,  there  is  in  the  form  no  distinc- 
tion between  masculine  and  feminine,  but  only  between 
the  form  common  to  both  genders,  on  the  one  hand, 
and  the  form  applied  to  the  neuter,  on  the  other, — in 
a  word,  between  the  animate  and  the  inanimate.  The 
plural  of  animate  nouns  appears  to  be  formed  by  an 
amalgamation  with  the  pronoun  of  the  third  person, 
and  the  plural  of  inanimate  words  by  an  amalgamation 
with  the  corresponding  neuter  pronoun. 

The  use  of  the  pronoun  is,  therefore,  to  modify 
nouns  and  verbs.  The  ideas  which  we  imply  by 
case,  with  the  exception  of  the  possessive,  are  not  ideas 
having  relation  to  pronouns:  the  Indian  languages 
have,  therefore,  all  the  modifications  of  the  noun  that 
can  come  from  the  use  of  pronouns:  but,  with  the  ex- 
ception of  the  genitive,  as  expressing  possession,  and 
marked,  as  in  the  Hebrew,  by  a  pronominal  affix,  they 
have  no  series  of  cases.  The  relations  of  case  are  ex- 
pressed by  means  of  pronouns  affixed  to  the  verb. 

The  use  of  the  adjective  is  in  a  still  greater  degree 
synthetical.  There  is  no  such  separate  word,  in  an 
Algonquin  dialect,  as  a  simple  adjective.  As  the  noun 
is  used  only  in  its  relation,  so  the  adjective  is  used  with 
reference  to  that  which  it  qualifies.  Its  form,  when  it 
stands  alone,  is  that  of  an  impersonal  verb. 

But   the   peculiar   economy  of  the    4merican   Ian 
guages  is  best  illustrated  in  their  verbs.     Though  des- 
titute of  the  substantive  verb,  of  which  feeble  and  un- 
certain tracns  only  can  be  found  in  the  Chippewa,  and 


ISYNTHE1IC   CHARACTER  OF  THE   AMERICAN    LANGUAGES.      261 

perhaps  in  the  Muskhogee,  and  those  only  after  the  CHAP 
presence  of  Europeans, — yet  the  verb  is  the  dominant  — ^ 
part  of  speech,  swallowing  up,  as  it  were,  and  inclu- 
ding within  itself,  the  pronoun,  the  substantive,  and  the 
adjective.     Declension,  cases,  articles,  are   deficient; 
but  every  thing  is  conjugated.     The  adjective  assumes 
a  verbal  termination,  and  is  conjugated  as  a  verb ;  the 
idea  expressed  by  a  noun  is  clothed  in  verbal  forms, 
and  at  once  does  the  office  of  a  verb. 

Here,  also,  the  synthetic  character  predominates. 
Does  an  adjective  assume  a  verbal  form,  it  takes  to  it- 
self also  the  person  or  thing  which  it  qualifies;  and  the 
adjective,  the  pronoun  representing  the  subject,  and* 
the  verbal  form,  are  included  in  one  word.  Thus  far 
the  American  dialects  have  analogies  with  the  Greek 
and  Latin.  But  the  American  go  farther.  The  ac- 
cessory idea  of  case  is  represented  in  a  form  of  the 
verb  by  means  of  a  pronominal  affix.  An  Algonquin 
cannot  say  /  love,  or  I  hate ;  he  must  also,  and  simul- 
taneously, express  the  object  of  the  love  or  hatred. 
As  each  noun  is  blended  with  a  pronominal  prefix;  as 
each  adjective  amalgamates  with  the  subject  which  it 
qualifies ;  so  each  active  verb  includes  in  one  and  the 
same  word  one  pronoun  representing  its  subject,  and 
another  representing  its  object  also.  Nor  does  the 
synthetic  tendency  stop  here.  An  adjective  may  first 
be  melted  into  the  substantive,  and  the  compound 
word  may  then  assume  verbal  forms,  and  thus  receive 
all  tho  changes,  and  include  within  itself  all  the  rela- 
tions, which  those  forms  can  express. 

There  are  in  the  American  dialects  no  genuine  dc- 

,  ..,..,.  •—,, 

clensions;  it  is  otherwise  with  conjugations.  The 
verbs  have  true  grammatical  forms,  as  fixed  and  as 
regular  as  those  of  Greek  or  Sanscrit.  The  relations 


Edwin 


262      LANGUAGES  OF  THE  RED  MEN   EAST  OF  THE  MISSISSIPPI 

CHAP,  of  number  and  person,  both  with  regard  to  the  agent 
^--  and  the  object,  are  included  in  the  verb  by  means  of 
significant  pronominal  syllables,  which  are  prefixed, 
inserted,  or  annexed.  The  relations  of  time  are  ex- 
pressed by  the  insertion,  in  part,  of  unmeaning,  in  part, 
it  may  be,  of  significant,  syllables ;  and,  as  many  sup- 
plementary syllables  may  not  always  be  easily  piled 
one  upon  another,  changes  of  consonants,  as  well  as, 
in  a  slight  degree,  changes  of  vowels,  and  elisions,  take 
place ;  and  sometimes,  also,  unmeaning  syllables  are 
inserted  for  the  sake  of  euphony.  Inflection,  aggluti- 
nation, and  euphonic  changes,  all  take  place  in  the 
conjugation  of  the  Chippewa  verb.  Of  varieties  of  ter- 
minations and  forms,  the  oldest  languages,  and  those  in 
the  earliest  stage  of  development,  have  the  most. 

But  not  only  does  the  Algonquin  verb  admit  the 
number  of  forms  required  for  the  diversity  of  time  and 
mode ;  it  also  has  numerous  conjugations.  An  action 
may  be  often  repeated,  and  a  frequentative  conjugation 
follows.  The  idea  of  causation,  which  the  Indian  does 
not  conceive  abstractly,  and  can  express  only  syntheti- 
cally, makes  a  demand,  as  in  the  Hebrew,  for  a  new 
conjugation.  Every  verb  may  be  used  negatively,  as 
well  as  positively ;  it  may  include  in  itself  an  animate 
object,  or  the  object  may  be  inanimate;  and  whether 
it  expresses  a  simple  action,  or,  again,  is  a  frequenta- 
tive, it  may  have  a  reflex  signification,  like  the  middle 
voice  of  a  Greek  verb;  and  every  one  of  these  acci- 
dents gives  birth  to  an  entire  series  of  new  forms. 
Then,  since  the  Indian  verb  includes  within  itself  the 
agent  and  the  object,  it  may  pass  through  as  many 
transitions  as  the  persons  and  numbers  of  the  pronouns 
will  admit  of  different  combinations ;  and  each  of  these 
combinations  may  be  used  positively  or  negatively, 


SYNTHETIC   CHARACTER  OF  THE   AMER1C  A.N   LANGUAGES.      263 

with  a  reflex  or   a  .  causative    signification.      In   this  CHAP 

XXII 

manner,  changes  are  so  multiplied,  that  the  number  of  - — ^ 
possible  forms  of  a  Chippewa  verb  is  said  to  amount  to 
five  or  six  thousand  :  in  other  words,  the  number  ot 
possible  variations  is  indefinite. 

Such  are  the  cumbersome  processes  by  which  syn- 
thetical languages  express  thought.  For  the  want  of 
analysis,  the  savage  obtains  no  mastery  over  the  forms 
of  his  language ;  nay,  the  forms  themselves  are  used  in 
a  manner  which  to  us  would  seem  anomalous,  and  to 
the  Indian  can  appear  regular  only  because  his  mind 
receives  the  complex  thought  without  analysis.  To  a  f^es, 
verb  having;  a  nominative  singular  and  an  accusative  a.  Rev 

0  iii.  405. 

plural,  a  plural  termination  is  often  affixed.  The  verb, 
says  Eliot,  is  thus  changed  to  an  adnoun.  Again :  if 
with  a  verb  which  is  qualified  by  an  adverb,  the  idea 
of  futurity  is  to  be  connected,  the  sign  of  futurity  is 
attached  promiscuously  either  to  the  verb  or  the  ad- 
verb; the  Indian  is  satisfied  on  finding  the  expression 
of  futurity  somewhere  in  the  group. 

From  these  investigations  two  momentous  conclu- 
sions follow.     The  grammatical  forms  which  constitute 

r          i  i  i          /»    Zeisber- 

the  organization   ot  a  language,  are  not  the  work  of  ger,249. 
civilization,  but  of  nature.     It  is  not  writers,  nor  ar- 
bitrary conventions,  that  give   laws  to  language :  the 
forms  of  grammar,  the  power  of  combinations,  the  pos-    ^Jj. 
sibility  of  inversions,  spring  from  within  us,  and  are  a  vo°ynj'« 
consequence  of  our   own    organization.     If  language 
is  a  human  invention,  it  was  the  invention  of  savage 
man ;  and  this  creation  of  barbarism  would  be  a  higher 
trophy  to  human  power  than  any  achievement  of  civili- 
zation.    The  study  of  these  rudest  dialects   tends  to 
prove,  if  it  does  not  conclusively  prove,  that  it  was  not 
man  who  made  language,  but  He  who  made  man  gave 


264      LANGUAGES  OF  THE  RED  MEN  EAST  OF  THE  MISSISSIPPI 

CHAP,  him  utterance.    Speech  in  copiousness,  and  with  abun- 

-  —  '-  dance  arid  regularity  of  forms,  belongs  to  the  American 

savage,  because  it  belongs  to  man.     From  the  country 

of  the  Esquimaux  to  the  Oronoco,  and  from  thn  burn- 

Hum-   ing  climes  on  the  borders  of  that  stream  to  the  ite  of 

voyage,  the  Straits  of  Magellan,  the  primitive  American  lan- 

iii.306.  .  .... 

Dates'"  guages,    entirely  differing   in   their   roots,   have,  with 

[I;  385^1  slight   exceptions,    one    and  the   same   physiognomy.. 

uebir   Rernarkable  analogies  of  grammatical   structure  per- 

ca>TeBe-  vade  tne  m°st  refined,  as  well  as  the  most  gross.     Idi- 


mg    oms  as  unlike  as  Sclavonic  and  Celtic  resemble  each 


otner  in  their  internal  mechanism.     In  the  Esquimaux 
impart  there  is  an  immense  number  of  forms,  derived  from  the 
441^-444.  regimen  of  pronouns.     The  same  is  true  of  the  Basque 
bo"dti    language  in  Spain,  and  of  the  Congo  in  Africa.     Here 

Basque  is  a  marvellous  coincidence  in  the   structure   of  Ian- 
Lang. 

Lamau,  guages>    at   points  so   remote,   among  three  races  so 
different  as  the  white  man  of  the  Pyrenees,  the  black 
AbSdtm"  man  of  'Congo,  and  the  copper-colored  tribes  of  North 
307y;'R<!l  America.     Now,  a  characteristic  so  extensive  is  to  be 
es,  1.  19.  accounted  for  only  on  some  general  principle.     It  per- 
vades languages  of  different  races  and  different  conti- 
nents :  it  must,  then,  be  the  result  of  a  law.    As  nature, 
when  it  rose  from  the  chaos  of  its  convulsions  and  its 
deluges,  appeared  with  its  mountains,  its  basins,  and 


Acead'  *ts  va^eJs>  aH  so  fcishioned  that  man  could  cultivate 
xiiv.24o  anc|  a(jorn  them,  but  not  shape  them  anew  at  his  will  ; 
so  language,  in  its  earliest  period,  has  a  fixed  character, 
which  culture,  by  weeding  out  superfluities,  inventing 
happy  connections,  teaching  the  measure  of  ellipsis, 
and,  through  analysis,  perfecting  the  mastery  of  the 
mind  over  its  instruments,  may  polish,  enliven,  and 
improve,  but  cannot  essentially  change.  Men  have 
admired  the  magnificence  displayed  in  the  mountains, 


' 

CHARACTER   OF  THE  AMERICAN    LANGUAGES.  266 

the  rivers,  the  prolific  vegetation,  of  the  New  World.  CHAP. 

In  the  dialect  of  the  wildest  tribe,  the  wilderness  can 

show  a  nobler  work,  of  a  Power  higher  than  that  of 
man. 

Another  and  a  more  certain  conclusion  is  this — that 
tho  ancestors  of  our  tribes  were  rude  like  themselves. 
It  has  been  asked  if  our  Indians  were  not  the  wrecks 
of  more  civilized  nations.  Their  language  refutes  the 
hypothesis ;  every  one  of  its  forms  is  a  witness  that 
their  ancestors  were,  like  themselves,  not  yet  disen- 
thralled from  nature.  The  character  of  each  Indian 
language  is  one  continued,  universal,  all-pervading 
synthesis.  They  to  whom  these  languages  wqpe  the 
mother  tongue,  were  still  in  that  earliest  stage  of  intel- 
lectual culture  where  reflection  has  not  begun. 

Meantime,  from  the  first  visit  of  Europeans,  a 
change  has  been  preparing  in  the  American  lan- 
guages. The  stage  of  progress,  in  the  organic  struc- 
ture of  a  language,  is  that  of  intermixture.  To  the 
study  of  the  American  dialects  the  missionaries  carried 
the  habit  of  analysis,  and  enriched  the  speech  of  the 
barbarians  with  the  experience  of  civilization.  Hence 
new  ideas  are  gaining  utterance,  and  new  forms  are 
springing  up.  The  half-breeds  grow  unwilling  to  in- 
dulge in  diffuse  combinations,  but  are  ready  to  em- 
ploy each  word  distinctly  and  by  itself;  and  the  wild 
man  understands,  if  he  does  not  approve,  the  inno- 
vation. Already  the  cultivated  Chippewa  is  gaining 
the  power  of  expressing  a  noun  of  relation,  independ- 
ent of  its  relations;  and  the  substantive  verb  begins 
to  glimmer  in  various  tongues  from  Lake  Superior  to 
the  homes  of  the  Choctas. 

"  The  sociabieness  of  the  nature  of  man  appears  in 
the  wildest  of  them."     To  Indians  returning  to  their 
VOL.  in.  34 


V 

266      MANNERS    OF    THE    RED    MEN    EAST  OF    THE    MISSISSIPPI. 

CHAP,  family  no  one  would  offer  hinderance,  "  thus  confessing 

^v^  the  sweetness  of  their  homes."     They  love  society, 

w?ur   and  the  joining  together  of  houses  and  towns.     With 

long  poles  fixed  in  the  ground,  and  bent  towards  each 

other  at  the  top,  covered  with  birch  or  chestnut  bark, 

and  hung  on  the  inside  with  embroidered  mats,  having 

no  door  but  a  loose  skin,  no  hearth  but  the  ground,  no 

chimney  but  an  opening  in  the  roof,  the  wigwam  is 

quickly   constructed    and   easily   removed.     Its   size, 

whether  it  be  round  or  oblong,  is  in  proportion  to  the 

number  of  families  that  are  to  dwell  together;  and 

Ri633°n  there,  in  one  smoky  cell,  the  whole  clan  —  men,  children, 

P.  93.    an(j  Amen  —  are  huddled  together,  careless  of  cleanli- 

l.Shep  ° 

ness,  and  making  no  privacy  of  actions  of  which  some 


•bine,    irrational  animals  seem  ashamed. 

As  the  languages  of  the  American  tribes  were  limit- 
ed by  the  material  world,  so,  in  private  life,  the  senses 
held  dominion.  The  passion  of  the  savage  was  liberty  ; 
he  demanded  license  to  gratify  his  animal  instincts. 
To  act  out  himself,  to  follow  the  propensities  of  his 
nature,  seemed  his  system  of  morals.  The  supremacy 
of  conscience,  the  rights  of  reason,  were  not  subjects 
of  reflection  to  those  who  had  no  name  for  continence. 
The  idea  of  chastity,  as  a  social  duty,  was  bat  feebly 
developed  among  them  ;  and  the  observer  of  their  cus- 
toms would,  at  first,  believe  them  to  have  been  igno- 
rant of  restraint.  If  "the  kindly  flames  of  nature 
burned  in  wild  humanity,"  their  love  never  became  a 
frenzy  or  a  devotion  ;  for  indulgence  destroyed  its 
energy  and  its  purity. 

And  yet  no  nation  has  ever  been  found  without 
some  practical  confession  of  the  duty  of  self-denial. 
R  wn  "God  hath  planted  in  the  hearts  of  the  wildest  of  the 
sonnes  of  men  a  high  and  honorable  esteem  of  the  mar- 


liams 
c.  x 


DOMESTIC    LIFE  AMONG   THE    RED   MEN.  267 

riage  bed,  insomuch  that  they  universally  submit  unto  CHAP. 
it,  and  hold  its  violation  abominable."     Neither  might  — -^ 
marriages  be  contracted  between  kindred  of  near  de- 
gree ;  the  Iroquois  might  choose  a  wife  of  the  same 
tribe  with  himself,  but  not  of  the  same  cabin ;  the  Al- 
gonquin must  look  beyond  those  who  used  the  same 
totem,  or  family  symbol ;  the  Cherokee  would  marry  at 
once  a  mother  and  htr  daughter,  but  would  never 
marry  his  own  immediate  kindred. 

On  forming  an  engagement,  the  bridegroom,  or,  if 
he  were  poor,  his  friends  and  neighbors,  made  a  pres- 
ent to  the  bride's  father,  of  whom  no  dowry  was  ex- 
pected. The  acceptance  of  the  presents  perfected  the 
contract ;  the  wife  was  purchased ;  and,  for  a  season, 
at  least,  the  husband,  surrendering  his  gains  as  a 
hunter  to  her  family,  had  a  home  in  her  father's  lodge. 

But,  even  in  marriage,  the  Indian  abhorred  con- 
straint ;  and,  from  Florida  to  the  St.  Lawrence,  polyg- 
amy was  permitted,  though  at  the  north  it  was  not 
common.  In  a  happy  union,  affection  was  fostered  JCUM 
and  preserved ;  and  the  wilderness  could  show  wig- 
wams where  "  couples  had  lived  together  thirty,  forty 
years."  Yet  Love  did  not  always  light  his  happiest 
torch  at  the  nuptials  of  the  children  of  nature,  and 
marriage  among  the  forests  had  its  sorrows  and  its 
crimes.  The  infidelities  of  the  husband  sometimes 
drove  tho  helpless  wife  to  suicide :  the  faithless  wife 
had  no  protector ;  her  husband  insulted  or  disfigured 
her  at  will ;  and  death  for  adultery  was  unrevenged. 
Divorce,  also,  was  permitted,  even  for  occasions  beside 
adultery ;  it  took  place  without  formality,  by  a  simple 
separation  or  desertion,  and,  where  there  was  no  off- 
spring, was  of  easy  occurrence.  Children  were  the 
strongest  bond;  for,  if  the  mother  was  discarded,  it 


MANNERS    OF  THE    RED    MEN    EAST    OF    THE    MISSISSIPPI 

CHAP,  was  the  unwritten  law  of  the  red  man  that  she  should 

^  herself  retain  those  whom  she  had  borne  or  nursed. 

The  sorrows  of  child-bearing  were  mitigated  to  the 
Indian  mother,  and  her  travail  was  comparatively  easy 
and  speedy.  "In  one  quarter  of  an  hour,  a  woman 
would  be  merry  in  the  house,  and  delivered,  and  merry 
againe  ;  and  within  two  days,  abroad ;  and  after  four  or 
five  dayes,  at  worke."  Energy  of  will  surmounted  the 
pangs  of  child-birth.  The  woman  who  uttered  com- 
plaints or  groans  was  esteemed  worthy  to  be  but  the 
mother  of  cowards.  Yet  death  sometimes  followed. 
The  pregnant  woman  continued  her  usual  toils,  bore 
her  wonted  burdens,  followed  her  family  even  in  its 
winter  rambles.  How  helpless  the  Indian  infant, 
born,  without  shelter,  amidst  storms  and  ice !  But 
fear  nothing  for  him :  God  has  placed  near  him  a 
guardian  angel,  that  can  triumph  over  the  severities  of 
nature ;  the  sentiment  of  maternity  is  by  his  side  ;  and, 
so  long  as  his  mother  breathes,  he  is  safe.  The  squaw 
loves  her  child  with  instinctive  passion  ;  and,  if  she 
does  not  manifest  it  by  lively  caresses,  her  tenderness 
is  real,  wakeful,  and  constant.  No  savage  mother  ever 
trusted  her  babe  to  a  hireling  nurse ;  no  savage  mother 
ever  put  away  her  own  child  to  suckle  that  of  another. 
To  the  cradle,  consisting  of  thin  pieces  of  light  wood, 
and  gayly  ornamented  with  quills  of  the  porcupine, 
and  beads,  and  rattles,  the  nursling  is  firmly  attached, 
and  carefully  wrapped  in  furs ;  and  the  infant,  thus 
swathed,  its  back  to  the  mother's  back,  is  borne  as  the 
topmost  burden, — its  dark  eyes  now  cheerfully  flashing 
light,  now  accompanying  with  tears  the  wailings  which 
the  plaintive  melodies  of  the  carrier  cannot  hush.  Or, 
while  the  squaw  toils  in  the  field,  she  hangs  her  child, 
as  spring  does  its  blossoms,  on  the  boughs  of  a  tree. 


DOMESTIC    LIFE    AMONG    THE    RED    MEN.  269 

that  it  may  be  rocked  by  the  breezes  from  the  land  of  CHAP 
souls,  and  soothed  to  sleep  by  the  lullaby  of  the  birds.  -^^1 

Does  the  mother  die,  the   nursling — such  is   Indian  R^n 

t_         L  1657 

compassion — shares  her  grave.  P.  179. 

On  quitting  the  cradle,  the  children  are  left  nearly 
naked  in  the  cabin,  to  grow  hardy,  and  learn  the  use 
of  their  limbs.  Juvenile  sports  are  the  same  every 
where  ;  children  invent  them  for  themselves ;  and  the 
traveller,  who  finds  every  where  in  the  wide  world  the 
same  games,  may  rightly  infer,  that  the  Father  of  the 
great  human  family  himself  instructs  the  innocence  of 
childhood  in  its  amusements.  There  is  no  domestic 
government;  the  young  do  as  they  will.  They  are 
never  earnestly  reproved,  injured,  or  beaten ;  a  dash 
of  cold  water  in  the  face  is  their  heaviest  punishment. 
If  they  assist  in  the  labors  of  the  household,  it  is  as  a 
pastime,  not  as  a  charge.  Yet  they  show  respect  to 
the  chiefs,  and  defer  with  docility  to  those  of  their 
cabin.  The  attachment  of  savages  to  their  offspring 
is  extreme ;  and  they  cannot  bear  separation  from 
them.  Hence  every  attempt  at  founding  schools  for 
their  children  was  a  failure  :  a  missionary  would  gather 
a  little  flock  about  him,  and  of  a  sudden,  writes  Le 

Relation 

Joune,  "  my  birds  flew  away."  From  their  insufficient  ^ 
and  irregular  supplies  of  clothing  and  food,  they  learn 
to  endure  hunger  and  rigorous  seasons ;  of  themselves 
they  become  fleet  of  foot,  and  skilful  in  swimming  ; 
their  courage  is  nursed  by  tales  respecting  their  ances- 
tors, till  they  burn  with  a  love  of  glory  to  be  acquired 
by  valor  and  address.  So  soon  as  the  child  can  grasp 
the  bow  and  arrow,  they  are  in  his  hand ;  and,  as 
there  was  joy  in  the  wigwam  at  his  birth,  and  his  first 
cutting  of  a  tooth,  so  a  festival  is  kept  for  his  earliest  • 
success  in  the  chase.  The  Indian  young  man  is  edu- 


270      MANNERS    OF    THE    RED    MEJ>    EAST    OF  THE    MISSISSIPPI 

CHAP,  cated  in   the  school  of  nature.     The   influences   bv 

XXII 

which  he  is  surrounded  nurse  within  him  the  passion 

for  war :  as  he  grows  up,  he,  in  his  turn,  takes  up  the 
war-song,  of  which  the  echoes  never  die  away  on  the 
boundless  plains  of  the  west :  he  travels  the  war-path 
in  search  of  an  encounter  with  an  enemy,  that  he,  too, 
at  the  great  war-dance  and  feas£  of  his  band,  may 

cass  l)oast  of  his  exploits ;  may  enumerate  his  gallant  deeds 
by  the  envied  feathers  of  the  war  eagle  that  decorate 
his  hair ;  and  may  keep  the  record  of  his  wounds  by 
shining  marks  of  vermilion  on  his  skin. 

The  savages  are  proud  of  idleness.  At  home,  they 
do  little  but  cross  their  arms  and  sit  listlessly;  or  en- 
gage in  games  of  chance,  hazarding  all  their  posses- 
sions on  the  result ;  or  meet  in  council ;  or  sing,  and 
eat,  and  play,  and  sleep.  The  greatest  toils  of  the  men 
were,  to  perfect  the  palisades  of  the  forts ;  to  manufac- 
ture a  boat  out  of  a  tree  by  means  of  fire  and  a  stone 
hatchet ;  to  repair  their  cabins ;  to  get  ready  instru- 
ments of  war  or  the  chase ;  and  to  adorn  their  persons. 
Woman  is  the  laborer ;  woman  bears  the  burdens  of 
life.  The  food  that  is  raised  from  the  earth  is  the  fruit 
of  her  industry.  With  no  instrument  but  a  wooden 
mattock,  a  shell,  or  a  shoulder-blade  of  the  buffalo,  she 
plants  the  maize,  the  beans,  and  the  running  vines. 
She  drives  the  blackbirds  from  the  cornfield,  breaks  the 
weeds,  and,  in  due  season,  gathers  the  harvest.  She 
pounds  the  parched  corn,  dries  the  buffalo  meat,  and 
prepares  for  winter  the  store  of  wild  fruits ;  she  brings 
home  the  game  which  her  husband  has  killed ;  she 
bears  the  wood,  and  draws  the  water,  and  spreads  the 
repast.  If  the  chief  constructs  the  keel  of  the  canoe, 
it  is  woman  who  stitches  the  bark  with  split  ligaments 
of  the  pine  root,  and  sears  the  seams  with  resinous 


RESOURCES    OF  THE    RED  MEN.  271 

gum.     If  the  men  prepare  the  poles  for  the  wigwam,  CHAP. 
it  is  woman  who  builds  it,  and,  in  times  of  journejings,  ^^ 
bears  it  on  her  shoulders.     The  Indian's  wife  was  his  ^"202 
slave  ;  and  the  number  of  his  slaves  was  a  criterion  of 
his  wealth. 

The  Indians  of  our  republic  had  no  calendar  of  their 
own  ;  their  languages  have  no  word  for  year,  and  they 
reckon  time  by  the  return  of  snow  or  the  springing  of 
the  flowers ;  their  months  are  named  from  that  which 
the  earth  produces  in  them ;  and  their  almanac  is  kept 
in  the  sky  by  the  birds,  whose  flight  announces  the 
progress  of  the  seasons.  The  brute  creation  gives 
them  warning  of  the  coming  storm ;  the  motion  of  the 
sun  marks  the  hour  of  the  day;  and  the  distinctions 
of  time  are  noted,  not  in  numbers,  but  in  words  that 
breathe  the  grace  and  poetry  of  nature. 

The  aboriginal  tribes  of  the  United  States  depended 
for  food  on  the  chase,  the  fisheries,  and  agriculture. 
They  kept  no  herds;  they  never  were  shepherds. 
The  bison  is  difficult  to  tame,  and  its  female  yields 
little  milk,  of  which  the  use  was  unknown  to  the  red 
man :  water  was  his  only  drink.  The  moose,  the 
bear,  the  deer,  and  at  the  west  the  buffalo,  besides 
smaller  game  and  fowl,  were  pursued  with  arrows 
tipped  with  hart's-horn,  or  eagles'  claws,  or  pointed 
stones.  With  nets  and  spears  fish  were  taken,  and, 
for  want  of  salt,  were  cured  by  smoke.  Wild  fruits, 
and  abundant  berries,  were  a  resource  in  their  season ; 
and  troops  of  girls,  with  baskets  of  bark,  would  gather 
the  fragrant  fruit  of  the  wild  strawberry.  But  all  the 
tribes  south  of  the  St.  Lawrence,  except  remote  ones 
on  the  north-east  and  the  north-west,  cultivated  the 
earth.  Unlike  the  people  of  the  Old  World,  they  were 
at  once  hunters  and  tillers  of  the  ground.  The  con- 


272      MANNERS    OF  THE    RED    MEN    EAST    OF   THE    MISSISSIPPI 

CHAP,  trast  was  due  to  the  character  of  their  grain.  Wheat 
-  or  rye  would  have  been  a  useless  gift  to  the  Indian, 
who  had  neither  plough  nor  sickle.  The  maize  springs 
luxuriantly  from  a  warm,  new  field,  and  in  the  rich 
soil,  with  little  aid  from  culture,  outstrips  the  weeds  ; 
bears,  not  thirty,  not  fifty,  but  a  thousand  fold  ;  if 
once  dry,  is  hurt  neither  by  heat  nor  cold;  may  be 
preserved  in  a  pit  or  a  cave  for  years,  ay,  and  for  cen- 
turies ;  is  gathered  from  the  field  by  the  hand,  without 
knife  or  reaping-hook  ;  and  becomes  nutritious  food  by 
a  simple  roasting  before  a  fire.  A  little  of  its  parched 
meal,  with  water  from  the  brook,  was  often  a  dinner 
and  supper  ;  and  the  warrior,  with  a  small  supply  of  it 
in  a  basket  at  his  back,  or  in  a  leathern  girdle,  and 
with  his  bow  and  arrows,  is  ready  for  travel  at  a  mo- 
ment's warning.  The  tobacco-plant  was  not  forgot- 
ten; and  the  cultivation  of  the  vine  which  we  have 
learned  of  them  to  call  the  squash,  with  beans,  com- 
pleted their  husbandry. 

During  the  mild  season,  there  may  have  been  little 
suffering.     But  thrift  was  wanting  ;  the  stores  collect- 
H.WH.  ed  by  the  industry  of  the  women  were  squandered  in 
festivities.     The  hospitality  of  the   Indian  has  rarely 

r  J  .  .       V 

been  questioned.  The  stranger  enters  his  cabin,  by 
day  or  by  night,  without  asking  leave,  and  is  enter- 
tained as  freely  as  a  thrush  or  a  blackbird  that  regales 
himself  on  the  luxuries  of  the  fruitful  grove.  He  will 
take  his  own  rest  abroad,  that  he  may  give  up  his  own 
skin  or  mat  of  sedge  to  his  guest.  Nor  is  the  traveller 
questioned  as  to  the  purpose  of  his  visit  ;  he  chooses 
his  own  time  freely  to  deliver  his  message.  Festivals, 
too,  were  common,  at  some  of  which  it  was  the  rule  to 
eat  every  thing  that  was  offered  ;  and  the  indulgence 
of  appetite  surpassed  belief.  But  what  could  be  more 
miserable  than  the  tribes  of  the  north  and  north-west, 


ftelation 


RESOURCES,  CLOTHING  OF  THE  RED  MEN. 

in  the  depth  of  winter, — suffering  from  an  annual  fam-  CHAP 

xxn 
ine  ;  driven  by  the  intense  cold  to  sit  indolently  in  the  — v-J 

smoke  round  the  fire  in  the  cabin,  and  to  fast  for  days 
together ;  and  then,  again,  compelled,  by  faintness  for 
want  of  sustenance,  to  reel  into  the  woods,  and  gather  Re™™ 
moss  or  bark  for  a  thin  decoction,  that  might,  at  least,   p16J& 
relieve  the  extremity  of  hunger? 

Famine  gives  a  terrible  energy  to  the  brutal  part 
of  our  nature.     A  shipwreck  will  make  cannibals  of 
civilized  men ;  a  siege  changes  the  refinements  of  ur- 
banity into  excesses  at  which  humanity  shudders;  a 
retreating  army  abandons  its  wounded.     The  hunting 
tribes  have  the  affections  of  men ;  but  among  them,  RicS°n 
also,  extremity  of  want  produces  like   results.     The  0Jna"^ 
aged  and  infirm  meet  with  little  tenderness ;  the  hunt-  *&%£ 
ers,  as  they  roam  the  wilderness,  desert  their  old  men ;  cianrke, 
if  provisions  fail,  the  feeble  drop  down,  and  are  lost,  or 
life  is  shortened  by  a  blow. 

The  fate  of  the  desperately  ill  was  equally  sad. 
Diseases  were  believed  to  spring,  in  part,  from  natural 
causes,  for  which  natural  remedies  were  prescribed. 
Of  these,  the  best  was  the  vapor  bath,  prepared  in  a 
tent  covered  with  skins,  and  warmed  by  means  of  hot 
stones ;  or  decoctions  of  bark,  or  roots,  or  herbs,  were 
used.  Graver  maladies  were  inexplicable,  and  their 
causes  and  cures  formed  a  part  of  their  religious  super- 
stitions ;  but  those  who  lingered  with  them,  especially 
the  aged,  were  sometimes  neglected,  and  sometimes 
put  to  death. 

The  clothing  of  the  natives  was,  in  summer,  but  a 
piece  of  skin,  like  an  apron,  round  the  waist ;  in  win- 
ter, a  bear-skin,  or,  more  commonly,  robes  made  of  the 
skins  of  the  fox  and  the  beaver.  Their  feet  were  pro- 
tected by  soft  moccasons ;  and  to  these  were  bound 
VOL.  in.  35 


274     MANNERS   OF  THE    RED    MEN    EAST   OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI 

CHAP  the  broad  snow-shoes,  on  which,  though  cumbersome 

XXII 

'  to  the  novice,  the  Indian  hunter  could  leap  like  the 

roe.  Of  the  women,  head,  arms,  and  legs,  were  un- 
covered ;  a  mat  or  a  skin,  neatly  prepared,  tied  over 
the  shoulders,  and  fastened  to  the  waist  by  a  girdle, 
extended  from  the  neck  to  the  knees.  They  glittered 
with  tufts  of  elk  hair,  brilliantly  dyed  in  scarlet ;  and 
strings  of  the  various  kinds  of  shells  were  their  pearls 
and  diamonds.  The  summer  garments,  of  moose  and 
deer  skins,  were  painted  of  many  colors ;  and  the  fair- 
est feathers  of  the  turkey,  fastened  by  threads  made 
from  wild  hemp  and  nettle,  were  curiously  wrought 
Mmwf  into  mantles.  The  claws  of  the  grisly  bear  formed  a 
proud  collar  for  a  war-chief;  a  piece  of  an  enemy's 
scalp,  with  a  tuft  of  long  hair,  painted  red,  glittered  on 
the  stem  of  their  war-pipes ;  the  wing  of  a  red-bird,  or 
the  beak  and  plumage  of  a  raven,  decorated  their 
locks ;  the  skin  of  a  rattlesnake  was  worn  round  the 
arm  of  their  chiefs ;  the  skin  of  the  polecat,  bound 
round  the  leg,  was  their  order  of  the  garter — emblem 
of  noble  daring.  A  warrior's  dress  was  often  a  history 
of  his  deeds.  His  skin  was  also  tattooed  with  figures 
of  animals,  of  leaves,  of  flowers,  and  painted  with  lively 
and  shining  colors. 

Some  had  the  nose  tipped  with  blue,  the  eyebrows, 
eyes,  and  cheeks,  tinged  with  black,  and  the  rest  of  the 
face  red ;  others  had  black,  red,  and  blue  stripes  drawn 
from  the  ears  to  the  mouth ;  others  had  a  broad,  black 
band,  like  a  ribbon,  drawn  from  ear  to  ear  across  the 
eyes,  with  smaller  bands  on  the  cheeks.  When  they 
made  visits,  and  when  they  assembled  in  council,  they 
painted  themselves  gloriously,  delighting  especially  in 
vermilion. 

There  can  be  no  society  without  government ;  but 


POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS    OF    THE    RED  MEN.  275 

among  the  Indian  tribes  on  the  soil  of  our  republic,  CHAP, 
there  was  not  only  no  written  law, — there  was  no  tra — ^^ 
ditionary  expression  of  law ;  government  rested  on 
opinion  and  usage,  and  the  motives  to  the  usage  were 
never  imbodied  in  language ;  they  gained  utterance 
only  in  the  fact,  and  power  only  from  opinion.  No 
ancient  legislator  believed  that  human  society  could  be 
maintained  with  so  little  artifice.  Unconscious  of  po- 
litical principles,  they  remained  under  the  influence  of 
instincts.  Their  forms  of  government  grew  out  of 
their  passions  and  their  wants,  and  were,  therefore 
every  where  nearly  the  same.  Without  a  code  of 
laws,  without  a  distinct  recognition  of  succession  in 
the  magistracy  by  inheritance  or  election,  government 
was  conducted  harmoniously  by  the  influence  of  native 
genius,  virtue,  and  experience. 

Prohibitory  laws  were  hardly  sanctioned  by  savage 
opinion.  The  wild  man  hates  restraint,  and  loves  to 
do  what  is  right  in  his  own  eyes.  "The  Illinois," 
writes  Marest,  "are  absolute  masters  of  themselves, 
subject  to  no  law."  The  Delawares,  it  was  said, 
"  are,  in  general,  wholly  unacquainted  with  civil  laws  JJJJ* 
and  proceedings,  nor  have  any  kind  of  notion  of  civil 
judicatures,  of  persons  being  arraigned  and  tried,  con- 
demned or  acquitted."  As  there  was  no  commerce, 
no  coin,  no  promissory  notes,  no  employment  of  others 
for  hire,  there  were  no  contracts.  Exchanges  were 
out  a  leciprocity  of  presents,  and  mutual  gifts  were  the 
only  traffic.  Arrests  and  prisons,  lawyers  and  sheriffs, 
were  unknown.  Each  man  was  his  own  protectoi  , 
and,  as  there  was  no  public  justice,  each  man  issued  to 
himself  his  letter  of  reprisals,  and  became  his  own 
avenger.  In  case  of  death  by  violence,  the  departed 
shade  could  not  rest  till  appeased  by  a  retaliation. 


276  POLITICAL   INSTITUTIONS    OF    THE    RED   MEN. 

UHAP.  His  kindred  would  "  go  a  thousand  miles,  for  the  pur- 

pose  of  revenge,  over  hills  and   mountains ;  through 

large  cane  swamps,  full  of  grape  vines  and  briers ;  over 
broad  lakes,  rapid  rivers,  and  deep  creeks ;  and  all  the 
way  endangered  by  poisonous  snakes,  exposed  to  the 
eojsi.  extremities  of  heat  and  cold,  to  hunger  and  thirst" 
And  blood  being  once  shed,  the  reciprocity  of  attacks 
involved  famil)  in  the  mortal  strife  against  family, 
tribe  against  tribe,  often  continuing  from  generation 
to  generation.  Yet  mercy  could  make  itself  heard 
even  among  barbarians ;  and  peace  was  restored  by 
atoning  presents,  if  they  were  enough  to  cover  up  the 
graves  of  the  dead. 

The  acceptance  of  the  gifts  pacified  the  families  of 
those  who  were  at  variance.  In  savage  life,  which 
admits  no  division  of  labor,  and  has  but  the  same  pur- 
suit for  all,  the  bonds  of  relationship  are  widely  ex- 
tended. Families  remain  undivided,  having  a  common 
emblem,  which  designates  all  their  members  as  effectu- 
ally as  with  us  the  name.  The  limit  of  the  family  is 
the  limit  of  the  interdicted  degrees  of  consanguinity 
for  marriage.  They  hold  the  bonds  of  brotherhood  so 
dear,  that  a  brother  commonly  pays  the  debt  of  a  de- 
ceased brother,  and  assumes  his  revenge  and  his  perils. 
There  are  no  beggars  among  them,  no  fatherless  chil- 
dren unprovided  for.  The  families  that  dwell  together, 
hunt  together,  roam  together,  fight  together,  constitute 
a  tribe.  Danger  from  neighbors,  favoring  union,  leads 
to  alliances  and  confederacies,  just  as  pride,  which  is 
a  pervading  element  in  Indian  character,  and  shelters 
itself  in  every  lodge,  leads  to  subdivisions.  Of  national 
affinity,  as  springing  from  a  common  language,  the  Al- 
gonquin, the  Wyandot,  the  Dahcota,  the  Mobilian,  each 
was  ignorant.  They  did  not  themselves  know  their 


POLITICAL    INSTITUTIONS   OF   THE    RED   MEN.  277 

respective  common  lineage,  and  neither  of  them  had  a  CHAR 
name  embracing  all  its  branches. 

As  the  tribe  was  but  a  union  of  families,  government 
was  a  consequence  of  family  relations,  and  the  head  of 
the  family  was  its  chief.  The  succession  depended  on 
birth,  and  was  inherited  through  the  female  line.  Even 
among  the  Narragansetts,  the  colleague  of  Canonicus 
was  his  nephew.  This  rule  of  descent,  which  sprung 
from  the  general  licentiousness,  and  was  known 
throughout  various  families  of  tribes,  was  widely  ob- 
served, but  most  of  all  among  the  Natchez.  Elsewhere, 
the  hereditary  right  was  modified  by  opinion.  Opinion 
could  crowd  a  civil  chief  into  retirement,  and  could 
dictate  his  successor.  Nor  was  assassination  unknown. 
The  organization  of  the  savage  communities  was  like 
that  which  with  us  takes  place  at  the  call  of  a  sponta- 
neous public  meeting,  where  opinion  in  advance  desig- 
nates the  principal  actors ;  or,  as  with  us,  at  the  death 
of  the  head  of  a  large  family,  opinion  within  the  family 
selects  the  best  fitted  of  its  surviving  members  to  settle 
its  affairs.  Doubtless  the  succession  appeared  some- 
times to  depend  on  the  will  of  the  surviving  matron ; 
sometimes  to  have  been  consequent  on  birth;  some- 
times to  have  been  the  result  of  tl^  free  election  of 
the  wild  democracy,  and  of  silent  opinion.  There  have 
even  been  chiefs  who  could  not  tell  when,  where,  or 
how,  they  obtained  power. 

In  like  manner,  the  different  accounts  of  the  powei 
of  the  chief  are  contradictory  only  in  appearance. 
The  limit  of  his  authority  would  be  found  in  his 
personal  character.  The  humiliating  subordination  of 
one  will  to  another  was  every  where  unknown.  The 
Indian  chief  has  no  crown,  or  sceptre,  or  guards ;  no 
outward  symbols  of  supremacy,  or  means  of  giving  va- 


278  POLITICAL   INSTITUTIONS    OF  THE   RED   MEN. 

CHAP  lidity  to  his  decrees.     The  bounds  of  his  authority  float 

'  with  the  current  of  opinion  in  the  tribe  ;  he  is  not  so 

much  obeyed  as  followed  with  the  alacrity  of  free  voli- 
tion ;  and  therefore  the  extent  of  his  power  depends 
on  his  personal  character.     There  have  been   chiefs 
whose  commanding  genius  could  so  overawe  and  sway 
IS    the  common  mind,  as  to  gain,  for  a  season,  an  almost 
to"ett   absolute  rule, — while  others  had  little  authority,  and 
i97V*  if  they  used  menaces,  were  abandoned. 

Each  village  governed  itself  as  if  independent,  and 
each  after  the  same  analogies,  without  variety.  If  the 
observer  had  regard  to  the  sachems,  the  government 
seemed  monarchical ;  but  as,  of  measures  that  con- 
cerned all,  "they  would  not  conclude  aught  unto  which 
the  people  were  averse,"  and  every  man  of  due  age 
was  admitted  to  council,  it  might  also  be  described  as 
a  democracy.  In  council,  the  people  were  guided  by 
the  eloquent,  were  carried  away  by  the  brave  ;  and  this 
influence,  which  was  recognized,  and  regular  in  its  ac- 
tion, appeared  to  constitute  an  oligarchy.  The  gov- 
ernments of  the  aborigines  scarcely  differed  from  each 
other,  except  as  accident  gave  a  predominance  to  one 
or  the  other  of  these  elements.  It  is  of  the  Natchez 
that  the  most  wonderful  tales  of  despotism  and  aris- 
tocratic distinctions  have  been  promulgated.  Their 
chiefs,  who,  like  those  of  the  Hurons,  were  esteemed 
descendants  of  the  sun,  had  greater  power  than  could 
have  been  established  in  the  colder  regions  of  the 
north,  where  the  severities  of  nature  compel  the  sav- 
age to  rely  on  himself  and  to  be  free;  yet  as  the 
Natchez,  in  exterior,  resembled  the  tribes  by  which 
they  were  surrounded,  so  their  customs  and  institu- 
tions were  but  more  marked  developments  of  the  same 
characteristics.  Every  where  at  the  north,  there  was 


POLITICAL    INSTITUTIONS    OF   THE   RED   MEN.  279 

the  same  distribution  into  families,  and  the  same  order  CHAP 

in  each  separate  town.     The  affairs  relating   to  the  

whole  nation  were  transacted  in  general  council,  and 
with  such  equality,  and  such  zeal  for  the  common 
good,  that,  while  any  one  might  have  dissented  with 
impunity,  the  voice  of  the  tribe  would  yet  be  unani- 
mous in  its  decisions. 

Their  delight  was  in  assembling  together,  and  listen- 
ing to  messengers  from  abroad.  Seated  in  a  semicir- 
cle on  the  ground,  in  double  or  triple  rows,  with  the 
knees  almost  meeting  the  face, — the  painted  and  tat- 
tooed chiefs  adorned  with  skins  and  plumes,  with  the 
beaks  of  the  red-bird  or  the  claws  of  the  bear, — each 
listener  perhaps  with  a  pipe  in  his  mouth,  and  preserv- 
ing deep  silence, — they  would  give  solemn  attention  to 
the  speaker,  who,  with  great  action  and  energy  of  lan- 
guage, delivered  his  message ;  and,  if  his  eloquence 
pleased,  they  esteemed  him  as  a  god.  Decorum  was 
never  broken ;  there  were  never  two  speakers  strug- 
gling to  anticipate  each  other ;  they  did  not  express 
their  spleen  by  blows ;  they  restrained  passionate  invec- 
tive ;  the  debate  was  never  disturbed  by  an  uproar ; 
questions  of  order  were  unknown. 

The  record  of  their  treaties  was  kept  by  strings  of 
wampum ;  these  were  their  annals.  When  the  en- 
voys of  nations  met  in  solemn  council,  gift  replied  to 
gift,  and  belt  to  belt;  by  these  the  memory  of  the 
speaker  was  refreshed :  or  he  would  hold  in  his  hand 
a  bundle  of  little  sticks,  and  for  each  of  them  deliver  a 
message.  To  do  this  well  required  capacity  and  expe- 
rience. Each  tribe  had,  therefore,  its  heralds  or  en- 
voys, selected  with  reference  only  to  their  personal 
merit,  and  because  they  could  speak  well ;  and  often 
an  orator,  without  the  ^iid  of  rank  as  a  chief,  by  the 
brilliancy  of  his  eloquence,  swayed  the  minds  of  a 


280  POLITICAL    INSTITUTIONS    OF  THE    RED  MEN. 

CHAP,  confederacy.     That  the  words  of  friendship  might  be 

'-  transmitted  safely  through  the  wilderness,  the  red  men 

revered  the  peace-pipe.  The  person  of  him  that  trav- 
elled with  it  was  sacred ;  he  could  disarm  the  young 
warrior  as  by  a  spell,  and  secure  himself  a  fearless  wel- 
come in  every  cabin.  Each  village  also  had  its  calu- 
met, which  was  adorned  by  the  chief  with  eagles' 
feathers,  and  consecrated  in  the  general  assembly  of 
the  nation.  The  envoys  from  those  desiring  peace  or 
an  alliance,  would  come  within  a  short  distance  of  the 
town,  and,  uttering  a  cry,  seat  themselves  on  the 
ground.  The  great  chief,  bearing  the  peace-pipe  of 
his  tribe,  with  its  mouth  pointing  to  the  skies,  goes 
forth  to  meet  them,  accompanied  by  a  long  procession 
of  his  clansmen,  chanting  the  hymn  of  peace.  The 
strangers  rise  to  receive  them,  singing  also  a  song,  to 
put  away  all  wars,  and  to  bury  all  revenge.  As  they 
meet,  each  party  smokes  the  pipe  of  the  other,  and 
peace  is  ratified.  The  strangers  are  then  conducted 
to  the  village ;  the  herald  goes  out  into  the  street  that 
divides  the  wigwams,  and  makes  repeated  proclama- 
tion that  the  guests  are  friends ;  and  the  glory  of  the 
tribe  is  advanced  by  the  profusion  of  bear's  meat,  and 
flesh  of  dogs,  and  hominy,  which  give  magnificence  to 
the  banquets  in  honor  of  the  embassy. 

But,  if  councils  were  their  recreation,  war  alone  was 
the  avenue  to  glory.  All  other  employment  seemed  un- 
worthy of  human  dignity ;  in  warfare  against  the  brute 
creation,  but  still  more  against  man,  they  sought  liberty, 
happiness,  and  renown ;  thus  was  gained  an  honorable 
appellation,  while  the  mean  and  the  obscure  among 
them  had  not  even  a  name.  Hence  to  ask  an  Indian 
his  name  was  an  offence  :  a  chief  would  push  the  ques- 
tion aside  with  scorn  ;  for  it  implied  that  his  deeds  and 
the  titles  conferred  by  them,  were  unknown. 


POLITICAL    INSTITUTIONS    OF    THE    RED   MEN.  281 

The  code  of  war  of  the  red  men  attests  the  freedom  CHAP. 

XXII 

of  their  life.  No  war-chief  was  appointed  on  account  ^^ 
of  birth,  but  was,  in  every  case,  elected  by  opinion  ; 
and  every  war  party  was  but  a  band  of  volunteers,  en- 
listed for  one  special  expedition,  and  for  no  more. 
Any  one  who,  on  chanting  the  war-song,  could  obtain 
volunteer  followers,  became  a  war-chief.  This  was 
true  of  the  Algonquins,  and  true  of  the  Natchez. 

Solemn  fasts  and  religious  rites  precede  the  depart- 
ure of  the  warriors  ;  the  war-dance  must  be  danced, 
and  the  war-song  sung.     They  express  in  their  melo- 
dies a  contempt  of  death,  a  passion  for  glory  ;  and  the 
chief  boasts  that  "the  spirits  on  high  shall  repeat  his 
name."     A  belt  painted  red,  or  a  bundle  of  bloody 
sticks,  sent  to  the  enemy,  is  a  declaration  of  defiance. 
As  the  war  party  leave  the  village,  they  address  the 
women  in  a  farewell  hymn  :  —  "Do  not  weep  for  me, 
loved  woman,  should  I  die  ;  weep  for  yourself  alone. 
I  go  to  revenge  our  relations  fallen  and  slain  :  our  foes  school- 
shall  lie  like  them  ;  I  go  to  lay  them  low."    And,  with    iSs,' 
the  pride  which  ever  marks  the  barbarian,  each  one     432-' 
adds,  "  If  any  man  thinks  himself  a  great  warrior,  I  Jjn^ 
think  myself  the  same." 

The  wars  of  the  red  men  were  terrible,  not  from 
their  numbers;  for,  on  any  one  expedition,  they  rarely 
exceeded  forty  men  :  it  was  the  parties  of  six  or  seven 


which  were  the  most  to  be  dreaded.  Skill  consisted  «!• 
in  surprising  the  enemy.  They  follow  his  trail,  to  kill 
him  when  he  sleeps  ;  or  they  lie  in  ambush  near  a  vil- 
lage, and  watch  for  an  opportunity  of  suddenly  sur- 
prising an  individual,  or,  it  may  be,  a  woman  and  her 
children  ;  and,  with  three  strokes  to  each,  the  scalps 
of  the  victims  being  suddenly  taken  off,  the  brave  flies 
back  with  his  companions,  to  hang  the  trophies  in  his 
VOL.  in.  36 


282  POLITICAL    INSTITUTIONS    OF   THE   RED   MEN. 

CHAP  cabin,  to  go  from  village  to  village  in  exulting  proees- 
~^-  sion,  to  hear  orators  recount  his  deeds  to  the  elders 
and  the  chief  people,  and,  by  the  number  of  scalps 
taken  with  his  own  hand,  to  gain  the  high  war  titles 
of  honor.  Nay,  war  parties  of  but  two  or  three  were 
not  uncommon.  Clad  in  skins,  with  a  supply  of  red 
paint,  a  bow  and  quiver  full  of  arrows,  they  would 
roam  through  the  wide  forest  as  a  bark  would  over  the 
ocean ;  for  days  and  weeks,  they  would  hang  on  the 
skirts  of  their  enemy,  waiting  the  moment  for  striking 
a  blow.  From  the  heart  of  the  Five  Nations,  two 
young  warriors  would  thread  the  wilderness  of  the 
south ;  would  go  through  the  glades  of  Pennsylvania, 
the  valleys  of  Western  Virginia,  and  steal  within  the 
mountain  fastnesses  of  the  Cherokees.  There  they 
would  hide  themselves  in  the  clefts  of  rocks,  and 
change  their  places  of  concealment,  till,  provided  with 
scalps  enough  to  astonish  their  village,  they  would 
bound  over  the  ledges,  and  hurry  home.  It  was  the 
danger  of  such  inroads,  that,  in  time  of  war,  made 
every  English  family  on  the  frontier  insecure. 

The  Romans,  in  their  triumphal  processions,  exhib- 
ited captives  to  the  gaze  of  the  Roman  people ;  the 
Indian  conqueror  compels  them  to  run  the  gantlet 
through  the  children  and  women  of  his  tribe.  To  in- 
flict blows  that  cannot  be  returned,  is  proof  of  full  suc- 
cess, and  the  entire  humiliation  of  the  enemy;  it  is, 
moreover,  an  experiment  of  courage  and  patience. 
Those  who  show  fortitude  are  applauded ;  the  coward 
becomes  an  object  of  scorn. 

Fugitives  and  suppliants  were  often  incorporated 
into  a  victorious  tribe,  which  had  waged  an  unrelent- 
ing warfare  against  their  nation.  The  Creek  confede- 
racy was  recruited  by  emigrants  from  friends  and  foes ; 


POLITICAL   INSTITUTIONS    OF  THE    RED  MEN.  283 

the  Iroquois  welcomed  the  defeated  Hurons.     Some-  CHAP. 

• 
times  a  captive  was  saved,  to  be  adopted  in  place  of  a 

warrior  who  had  fallen.  In  that  event  the  allegiance, 
and,  as  it  were,  the  identity,  of  the  captive,  the  current 
of  his  affections  and  his  duties,  became  changed.  The 
children  and  the  wife  whom  he  had  left  at  home,  are 
to  be  blotted  from  his  memory:  he  is  to  be  the  depart- 
ed chieftain,  resuscitated  and  brought  back  from  the 
dwelling-place  of  shadows,  to  cherish  those  whom  he 
cherished ;  to  hate  those  whom  he  hated ;  to  rekindle 
his  passions ;  to  retaliate  his  wrongs ;  to  hunt  for  his 
cabin ;  to  fight  for  his  clan.  And  the  foreigner  thus 
adopted  is  esteemed  to  stand  in  the  same  relations  of 
consanguinity,  and  to  be  bound  by  the  same  restraints 
in  regard  to  marriage. 

.  More  commonly,  it  was  the  captive's  lot  to  endure 
torments  and  death,  in  the  forms  which  Brebeuf  has 
described.  On  the  way  to  the  cabins  of  his  conquer- 
ors, the  hands  of  an  Iroquois  prisoner  were  crushed 
between  stones,  his  fingers  torn  off  or  mutilated,  the 
joints  of  his  arms  scorched  and  gashed,  while  he  him- 
self preserved  his  tranquillity,  and  sang  the  songs  of 
his  nation.  Arriving  at  the  homes  of  his  conquerors, 
all  the  cabins  regaled  him,  and  a  young  girl  was  be- 
stowed on  him,  to  be  the  wife  of  his  captivity  and  the 
companion  of  his  last  loves.  At  one  village  after  an- 
other, he  was  present  at  festivals  which  were  given  in 
his  name,  and  at  which  he  was  obliged  to  sing.  The 
old  chief,  who  might  have  adopted  him  in  place  of  a 
fallen  nephew,  chose  rather  to  gratify  revenge,  and 
pronounced  the  doom  of  death.  "That  is  well,"  was 
his  reply.  The  sister  of  the  fallen  warrior,  into  whose 
place  it  had  been  proposed  to  receive  him,  still  treat- 
ed him  with  tenderness  as  a  brother,  offering  him 


284  THE   RELIGIOUS    FAITH    OF  THE    RED  MEN. 

CHAP,  food,  and  serving  him  with  interest  and  regard ;  her 
-^^-  father  caressed  him  as  though  he  had  become  his  kins- 
man, gave  him  a  pipe,  and  wiped  the  thick  drops  of 
sweat  from  his  face.  His  last  entertainment,  made  at 
the  charge  of  the  bereaved  chief,  began  at  noon.  To 
the  crowd  of  his  guests  he  declared, — "My  brothers,  I 
am  going  to  die ;  make  merry  around  me  with  good 
heart :  I  am  a  man ;  I  fear  neither  death  nor  your  tor- 
ments : "  and  he  sang  aloud.  The  feast  being  ended, 
he  was  conducted  to  the  cabin  of  blood.  They  place 
him  on  a  mat,  and  bind  his  hands ;  he  rises,  and  dances 
round  the  cabin,  chanting  his  death-song.  At  eight  in 
the  evening,  eleven  fires  had  been  kindled,  and  these 
are  hedged  in  by  files  of  spectators.  The  young  men 
selected  to  be  the  actors  are  exhorted  to  do  well,  for 
their  deeds  would  be  grateful  to  Areskoui,  the  power- 
ful war-god.  A  war-chief  strips  the  prisoner,  shows 
him  naked  to  the  people,  and  assigns  their  office  to  the 
tormentors.  Then  ensued  a  scene  the  most  horrible : 
torments  lasted  till  after  sunrise,  when  the  wretched 
victim,  bruised,  gashed,  mutilated,  half-roasted,  and 
scalped,  was  carried  out  of  the  village,  and  hacked  in 
pieces.  A  festival  upon  his  flesh  completed  the  sacrifice. 
Such  were  the  customs  that  Europeans  have  displaced. 
The  solemn  execution  of  the  captive  seems  to  have 
been,  in  part  at  least,  an  act  of  faith,  and  a  religious 
sacrifice.  The  dweller  in  the  wilderness  is  conscious 
of  his  dependence ;  he  feels  the  existence  of  relations 
with  the  universe  by  which  he  is  surrounded  and  an 
invisible  world ;  he  recognizes  a  nature  higher  than  his 
own.  His  language,  which  gave  him  no  separate  word 
for  causation,  could  give  him  no  expression  for  a  first 
cause ;  and,  since  he  had  no  idea  of  existence  except 
in  connection  with  space  and  time,  he  could  have  no 


THE    RELIGIOUS    FAITH    OF  THE    RED  MEN.  285 

idea  of  an  Infinite  and  Eternal  Being.     But,  as  the  CHAP. 

ideas  of  existence  and  causation  were  blended  with * 

words  expressing  action  or  quality,  so  the  idea  of  di- 
vinity was  blended  with  nature,  and  yet   not  wholly 
merged  in  the  external  world.     So  complete  was  this 
union,  many  travellers  denied  that  they  had  any  re- 
ligion.    "As  to  the  knowledge  of  God,"  says  Joutel 
of  the  south-west,  "it  did  not  seem  to  us  that  they  had 
any  definite  notion  about  it.     True,  we   found  upon 
our  route  some  who,  as  far  as  we  could  judge,  believed 
that  there  was  something  exalted,  which  is  above  all , 
but  they  have  neither  temples,  nor   ceremonies,  nor 
prayers,  marking  a  divine  worship.     That  they  have 
no  religion,  can  be  said  of  all  whom  we  saw."     "  The  &£$i. 
northern  nations,"  writes  Le  Caron,  "recognize  no 
divinity  from  motives  of  religion ;  they  have  neither  9le^ 
sacrifice,   nor   temple,    nor   priest,    nor   ceremony   of 
worship."     Le  Jeune  also  affirms,  "There  is  among  Re]atjon 
them  very  little  superstition  ;  they  think  only  of  living    ^ 
and  of  revenge  ;  they  are  not  attached  to  the  worship 
of  any  divinity."    And  yet  they  believed  that   some  Sof«!P 
powerful  genius  had  created  the  world  ;  that  unknown  IntCionT 
agencies  had  made  the  heavens  above  them  and  the   lx™- 
earth  on  which  they  dwelt.     The  god  of  the  savage  *ja™l,~ 
was  what  the  metaphysician  endeavors  to  express  by 
the  word  substance.    The  red  man,  unaccustomed  to 
generalization,  obtained  no  conception  of  an  absolute 
substance,  of  a  self-existent  being,  but  saw  a  divinity 
in  every  power.     Wherever  there  was  being,  motion, 
or  action,  there  to  him  was  a  spirit ;  and,  in  a  special 
manner,  wherever  there  appeared  singular  excellence 
among  beasts  or  birds,  or  in  the  creation,  there  to  him 
was  the  presence  of  a  divinity.     When  he  feels  his 
pulse  throb,  or  his  heart  beat,  he  knows  that  it  is  a 


286  THE    RELIGIOUS    FAITH   OF   THE    RED    MEN. 

CHAP  spirit.     A  god  resides  in  the  flint,  to  give  forth  the 

'<>  kindling,  cheering  fire;  in  the  mountain  cliff;  in  the 

cool  recesses  of  the  grottoes  which  nature  has  adorned ; 
in  each  "little  grass"  that  springs  miraculously  from 
the  earth.  "The  woods,  the  wilds,  and  the  waters, 
respond  to  savage  intelligence ;  the  stars  and  the 
mountains  live ;  the  river,  and  the  lake,  and  the  waves, 
have  a  spirit."  Every,  hidden  agency,  every  mysteri- 
ous influence,  is  personified.  A  god  dwells  in  the  sun, 
James's  and  in  the  moon,  and  in  the  firmament ;  the  spirit  of 

fanner,  .  .  . 

323     the  morning  reddens  in  the  eastern  sky;  a  deity  is 

present  in  the  ocean  and  in  the  fire ;  the  crag  that 

overhangs  the  river  has  its  genius ;  there  is  a  spirit  to 

school-  the  waterfall ;  a  household  god  makes  its  abode  in  the 

j^jffi.  Indian's  wigwam,  and  consecrates  his  home ;    spirits 

OOfi 

climb  upon  the  forehead,  to  weigh  down  the  eyelids  in 
sleep.  Not  the  heavenly  bodies  only,  the  sky  is  filled 
with  spirits  that  minister  to  man.  To  the  savage, 
divinity,  broken,  as  it  were,  into  an  infinite  number  of 
fragments,  fills  all  place  and  all  being.  The  idea  of 

Urlsner  ...  .  ,  •          m 

ger'a  unity  in  the  creation  may  have  existed  contemporane- 
ously ;  but  it  existed  only  in  the  germ,  or  as  a  vague 
belief  derived  from  the  harmony  of  the  universe.  Yet 

i    J92. 

faith  in  the  Great  Spirit,  when  once  presented,  was 
promptly  seized  and  appropriated,  and  so  infused  itself 
into  the  heart  of  remotest  tribes,  that  it  came  to  be 
often  considered  as  a  portion  of  their  original  faith. 
Their  shadowy  aspirations  and  creeds  assumed, 
through  the  reports  of  missionaries,  a  more  complete 
development ;  and  a  religious  system  was  elicited  from 
the  pregnant  but  rude  materials. 

It  is  not  fear  which  generates  this  faith  in  the  ex- 
istence of  higher  powers.  The  faith  attaches  to  every 
thing,  but  most  of  all  to  that  which  is  excellent ;  it  is 


THE    RELIGIOUS    FAITH    OF   THE  RED   MEN.  287 

the  undefined  consciousness  of  the  existence  of  mex-  CHAP 

yv.^Lll. 

plicable  relations  towards  powers  of  which  the  savage  -^ — 
cannot  solve  the  origin  or  analyze   the   nature.     His 
gods  are  not  the  offspring  of  terror ;  universal  nature 
seems  to  him  instinct  with  divinity.     The  Indian  ven- 
erates what   excites  his  amazement   or  interests  his 
imagination.     "The  Illinois,"  writes  the  Jesuit  Marest,    Leit 
"  adore  a  sort  of  genius,  which  they  call  manitou :  to  E^v- 
them  it  is  the  master  of  life,  the  spirit  that  rules  all 
things.    A  bird,  a  buffalo,  a  bear,  a  feather,  a  skin — 
that  is  their  manitou." 

No  tribe  worshipped  its  prophets,  or  deified  its  heroes ; 
no  Indian  adored  his  fellow-man,  or  paid  homage  to 
the  dead.  He  turns  from  himself  to  the  animal  world,  19,22! 

'        25. 

which  he  believes  also  to  be  animated  by  spirits.  The  BJ1ljjf- 
bird,  that  mysteriously  cleaves  the  air,  into  which  he  St", 
cannot  soar;  the  fish,  that  hides  itself  in  the  depths  Rielj|J9on 
of  the  clear,  cool  lakes,  which  he  cannot  fathom ;  the 
beasts  of  the  forest,  whose  unerring  instincts,  more 
sure  than  Ms  own  intelligence,  seem  like  revelations ; 
— these  enshrine  the  deity  whom  he  adores.  On  the 
Ohio,  Mermet  questioned  a  medicine  man,  who  ven- 
erated the  buffalo  as  his  manitou.  He  confessed  that 
he  did  not  worship  the  buffalo,  but  the  invisible  spirit 
which  is  the  type  of  all  buffaloes.  "Is  there  such 
a  manitou  to  the  bear?" — "Yes."  —  "To  man?" — 
"Nothing  more  certain;  man  is  superior  to  all." — 
"Why  do  you  not,  then,  invoke  the  manitou  of  man  ?" 
And  the  juggler  knew  not  what  to  answer.  It  has 
been  said  by  speculative  philosophy,  that  no  Indian 
ever  chose  the  manitou  of  a  man  for  his  object  of  ado- 
ration, because  he  adored  only  the  unknown,  and  man 
is  the  being  most  intimately  known  to  him.  It  seems, 
also,  that  the  very  instinct  which  prompted  the  savage 


288  THE   RELIGIOUS    FAITH   OF   THE    RED   MEN. 

CFIAP.  to  adore,  was  an  instinct  which  prompted  him  to  rec- 

-* —  ognize  his  closer  connection  with  the  world.  To  have 
worshipped  the  manitou  of  a  man,  would  have  been  to 
put  himself  only  in  nearer  relations  with  his  own  kind ; 
the  gulf  between  him  and  the  universe  would  have  re- 
mained as  wide  as  ever.  The  instincts  towards  man 
led  to  marriage,  society,  and  political  institutions. 
The  sentiment  of  devotion  sought  to  pass  beyond  the 
region  of  humanity,  and  enter  into  intimate  communion 
with  nature  and  the  beings  to  whom  imagination  in- 
trusted its  control, — with  the  sun  and  moon,  the  for- 
ests, the  rivers,  the  lakes,  the  fishes,  the  birds, — all 
which  has  an  existence  independent  of  man,  and  man- 
ifests a  power  which  he  can  neither  create  nor  destroy. 
Nor  did  the  savage  distrust  his  imaginations.  Some- 
thing within  him  affirmed  with  authority,  that  there 
was  more  in  them  than  fancies  which  his  mind  had 
called  into  being.  Infidelity  never  clouded  his  mind  ; 
the  shadows  of  skepticism  never  darkened  his  faith. 

The  piety  of  the  savage  was  not  merely  %  sentiment 
of  passive  resignation — he  sought  to  propitiate  the  un- 
known, to  avert  their  wrath,  to  secure  their  favor. 
I£  at  first>  no  traces  °f  religious  feeling  were  dis- 
cerned,  closer  observation  showed  that,  every  where 

v'79-  among  the  red  men,  even  among  the  roving  tribes 
of  the  north,  they  had  some  kind  of  sacrifice  and 
of  prayer.  If  the  harvest  was  abundant,  if  the  chase 
was  successful,  they  saw  in  their  success  the  influence 
of  a  manitou  ;  and  they  would  ascribe  even  an  ordina- 
ry accident  to  the  wrath  of  the  god.  "  O  manitou ! " 

^iaM1."  exclaimed  an  Indian,  at  daybreak,  with  his  family 
about  him,  lamenting  the  loss  of  a  child,  "thou  art 
angry  with  me ;  turn  thine  anger  from  me,  and  spare 
the  rest  of  my  children."  Canonicus,  the  great  sachem 
of  the  Narragansetts,  when  bent  with  age,  having 


THE  RELIGIOUS  FAITH  OF  THE  RED  MEN.        289 

buried  his  son,  "burned  his  own  dwelling,  and  all  his  CHAP 

goods  in  it,  in  part  as  a  humble  expiation  to  the  god  -— ^ 
who,  as  they  believe,  had  taken  his  sonne  from  him." 
At  their  feasts,  they  were  careful  not  to  profane  the     Le 

r  Caron, 

bones  of  the  elk,  the  beaver,  and  of  other  game,  lest  Jj^ 
the  spirits  of  these  animals  should  pass  by  and  behold 
the  indignity ;  and  then  the  living  of  the  same  species, 
instructed  of  the  outrage,  would  ever  after  be  careful  to 
escape  the  toils  and  the  arrows  of  the  hunter.  There 
were  also  occasions  on  which  nothing  of  the  flesh  was 
carried  forth  out  of  the  wigwam,  though  a  part  might 
be  burned  as  food  for  the  dead,  and  when,  of  the  beasts 
which  were  consumed,  it  was  the  sacred  rule  that  not 
a  bone  should  be  broken.  On  their  expeditions,  they 
keep  no  watch  during  the  night,  but  pray  earnestly  to 
their  fetiches ;  and  the  band  of  warriors  sleep  securely 
under  the  safeguard  of  the  sentinels  whom  they  have 
invoked.  They  throw  tobacco  into  the  fire,  on  the 
lake  or  the  rapids,  into  the  crevices  in  the  rocks,  on 
the  war-path,  to  propitiate  the  genius  of  the  place. 
The  evil  that  is  in  the  world  they  also  ascribe  to  spir- 
its, that  are  the  dreaded  authors  of  their  woes.  The 
evil  demon  of  war  was  to  be  propitiated  only  by  acts 
of  cruelty;  yet  they  never  sacrificed  their  own  children 
or  their  own  friends.  The  Iroquois,  when  Jogues  was 
among  them,  sacrificed  an  Algonquin  woman  in  honor 
of  Areskoui,  their  war-god,  exclaiming,  "Areskoui,  to  Jo?ue8 
thee  we  burn  this  victim :  feast  on  her  flesh,  and  grant  crelir- 

iua,  86 

us  new  victories ; "  and  her  flesh  was  eaten  as  a  reli- 
gious rite.  Hennepin  found  a  beaver  robe  hung  on  an 
oak,  as  an  oblation  to  the  spirit  that  dwells  in  the  Falls 
of  St  Anthony.  The  guides  of  Joutel  in  the  south- 
west,  on  killing  a  buffalo,  offered  several  slices  of  the 
meat  as  a.  sacrifice  to  the  unknown  spirit  of  that  wil- 
VOL.  in.  37 


29C  THE    RELIGIOUS    FAITH  OF   THE    RED   MEN. 

CHAP,  derness.    As  they  passed  the  Ohio,  its  beautiful  stream 
— v^  was  propitiated   by  gifts  of  tobacco  and  dried  meat ; 
and  worship   was   paid   to   the  rock  just   above   the 
Missouri. 

Even  now,  in  the  remote  west,  evidence  may  be 
found  of  the  same  homage  to  the  higher  natures,  which 
the  savage  divines,  but  cannot  fathom.  Nor  did  he 
seek  to  win  their  favor  by  gifts  alone;  he  made  a 
sacrifice  of  his  pleasures ;  he  chastened  his  passions. 
To  calm  the  rising  wind,  when  the  morning  sky  was 
red,  he  would  repress  his  activity,  and  give  up  the 
business  of  the  day.  To  secure  success  in  the  chase, 
by  appeasing  the  tutelary  spirits  of  the  animals  to  be 
A158.ez>  pursued,  severe  fasts  were  kept ;  and  happy  was  he  to 
whom  they  appeared  in  his  dreams,  for  it  was  a  sure 
augury  of  abundant  returns.  The  warrior,  preparing 
for  an  expedition,  often  sought  the  favor  of  the  god  of 
battle  by  separating  himself  from  woman,  and  morti- 
A383ir'  fying tne  body  by  continued  penance.  The  security  of 
female  captives  was,  in  part,  the  consequence  of  the 
vows  of  chastity,  by  which  the  warrior  was  bound  till 
after  his  return.  The  Indian,  detesting  restraint,  was 
perpetually  imposing  upon  himself  extreme  hardships, 
that  by  penance  and  suffering  he  might  atone  for  his 
offences,  and  by  acts  of  self-denial  might  win  for  him- 
self the  powerful  favor  of  the  invisible  world. 

Nor  is  the  Indian  satisfied  with  paying  homage  to 

the  several  powers  whose  aid  he  may  invoke  in  war, 

in  the  chase,  or  on  the  river;  he  seeks  a  special  genius 

to  be  his  companion  and  tutelary  angel  through  life. 

ios^m  On  approaching  maturity,  the  young  Chippewa,  anx- 

craftV  ions  to  behold  God,  blackens  his  face  with  charcoal, 

Algic 

ana",  building  a  lodge  of  cedar-boughs,  it  may  be  on 
the  summit  of  a  hill,  there  begins  his  fast  in  solitude 


THE   RELIGIOUS   FAITH    OF  THE    RED   MEN.  29] 

The  fast  endures,  perhaps,  ten  days,  sometimes  even  CHAP 
without  water,  till,  excited  by  the  severest  irritation  of  ^ — - 
thirst,  watchfulness,  and  famine,  he  beholds  a  vision 
of  God,  and  knows  it  to  be  his  guardian  spirit.  That 
spirit  may  assume  fantastic  forms,  as  a  skin  or  a 
feather,  as  a  smooth  pebble  or  a  shell ;  but  the  fetich, 
when  obtained,  and  carried  by  the  warrior  in  his  pouch, 
is  not  the  guardian  angel  himself,  but  rather  the 
token  of  his  favor,  and  the  pledge  of  his  presence  in 
time  of  need.  A  similar  probation  was  appointed  for 
the  warriors  of  Virginia,  and  traces  of  it  are  discerned 
beyond  the  Mississippi.  That  man  should  take  up  the 
cross,  that  sin  should  be  atoned  for,  are  ideas  that 
dwell  in  human  nature ;  they  were  so  diffused  among 
the  savages,  that  Le  Clercq  believed  some  of  the  apos- 
tles must  have  reached  the  American  continent. 

The  gifts  to  the  deities  were  made  by  the  chiefs,  or 
by  any  Indian  for  himself.  In  this  sense,  each  Indian 
was  his  own  priest ;  the  right  of  offering  sacrifices  was 
not  reserved  to  a  class ;  any  one  could  do  it  for  him- 
self, whether  the  sacrifice  consisted  in  oblations  or  acts 
of  self-denial.  But  the  Indian  had  a  consciousness  of 
man's  superiority  to  the  powers  of  nature,  and  sorce- 
rers sprung  up  in  every  part  of  the  wilderness.  They  inT1?. 
were  prophets  whose  prayers  would  be  heard.  "They 
are  no  other,"  said  the  Virginian  Whitaker,  "but  such 
as  our  English  witches ; "  and,  as  their  agency  was 
most  active  in  healing  disease,  they  are  now  usually 
called  medicine  men. 

Here,  too,  the  liberty  of  the  desert  appears.  As  the 
war-chief  was  elected  by  opinion,  and  served  volunta- 
rily, so  the  medicine  men  were  self-appointed.  They 
professed  an  insight  into  the  laws  of  nature,  and  power 
over  those  laws ;  but  belief  was  free ;  there  was  no 


292  THE    RELIGIOUS    FAITH    OF    THE    RED   MEN. 

CHAP,  monopoly  of  science,  no  close  priesthood.  He  who 
-  -  could  inspire  confidence  might  come  forward  as  a 
medicine  man.  The  savage  puts  his  faith  in  auguries; 
he  casts  lots,  and  believes  nature  will  be  obedient  to 
the  decision  ,  he  puts  his  trust  in  the  sagacity  of  the 
sorcerer,  who  comes  forth  from  a  heated,  pent-up 
lodge,  and,  with  all  the  convulsions  of  enthusiasm, 
utters  a  confused  medley  of  sounds  as  oracles. 

^e  medicine  man  boasts  of  his  power  over  the  ele- 
nients  ;  he  can  call  water  from  above,  and  beneath, 
and  around  ;  he  can  foretell  a  drought,  or  bring  rain, 
Relation  or  guide  the  lightning  ;  by  his  spells  he  can  give  at- 
tracti°n  an(J  gooa<  fortune  to  the  arrow  or  the  net  ;  he 


Bar! 


conjures  the  fish,  that  dwell  in  the  lakes  or  haunt  the 
rivers,  to  suffer  themselves  to  be  caught  ;  he  can  pro- 
nounce spells  which  will  infallibly  give  success  in  the 
chase,  which  will  compel  the  beaver  to  rise  up  from 
beneath  the  water,  and  overcome  the  shyness  and  cun 
ning  of  the  moose  ;  he  can,  by  his  incantations,  draw 
the  heart  of  woman  ;  he  can  give  to  the  warrior  vigi- 
lance like  the  rising  sun,  and  power  to  walk  over  the 
earth  and  through  the  sky  victoriously.  If  an  evil 
spirit  has  introduced  disease  into  the  frame  of  a  victim, 
the  medicine  man  can  put  it  to  flight  ;  and,  should  his 
remedies  chance  to  heal,  he  exclaims,  "  Who  can  resist 
my  spirit  ?  Is  he  not,  indeed,  the  master  of  life  ?  "  Or 
disease,  it  was  believed,  might  spring  from  a  want  of 
harmony  with  the  outward  world.  If  some  innate  de- 
sire has  failed  to  be  gratified,  life  can  be  saved  only  by 
the  discovery  and  gratification  of  that  secret  longing 
of  the  soul  ;  and  the  medicine  man  reveals  the  mo- 
mentous secret.  Were  he  to  assert  that  the  manitou 
Relation  orders  the  sick  man  to  wallow  naked  in  the  snow,  or 
pGsj'  to  scorch  himself  with  fire,  he  would  do  it.  But  let 


chas,  v 


THE    RELIGIOUS    FAITH    OF   THE    RED    MEN.  293 

not  the  wisdom  of  civilization  wholly  deride  the  sav-  CHAP 
age :  the  same  superstition  long  lingered  in  the  cities  — ^ 
and  palaces  of  Europe  ;  and,  in  the  century  after  the 
Huron  missions  began,  the  English  moralist  Johnson 
was  carried,  in  his  infancy,  to  the  British  monarch,  to 
be  cured  of  scrofula  by  the  great   medicine   of  her 
touch. 

Little  reverence  was  attached  to  time  or  place.  It 
could  not  be  perceived  that  the  savages  had  any  set  Pur 
holidays;  only  in  times  of  triumph,  at  burials,  at  har- 
vests, the  nation  assembled  for  solemn  rites.  Each 
Chocta  town  had  a  house  in  which  the  bones  of  the 
dead  were  deposited  for  a  season  previous  to  their  final 
burial.  The  Natchez,  like  their  kindred  the  Taensas, 
kept  a  perpetual  fire  in  a  rude  cabin,  in  which  rhe  bones 
of  their  great  chiefs  were  said  to  be  preserved.  The 
honest  Charlevoix,  who  entered  it,  writes,  "  1  saw  no 

Charle- 

ornaments,  absolutely  nothing,  which  could  make  me  JJ^i": 
know  that  I  was  in  a  temple ; "  and,  referring  to  the 
minute  relations  which  others  had  fabricated  of  an 
altar,  and  a  dome,  of  cones  wrapped  in  skins,  and  the 
circle  of  the  bodies  of  departed  chiefs,  he  adds,  "  I  saw 
nothing  of  all  that:  if  things  were  so  formerly,  they 
must  have  changed  greatly."  And  Adair  confidently 
insinuates,  that  the  Koran  does  not  more  widely  diffei  A** 
from  the  Gospels,  than  the  romances  respecting  the 
Natchez  from  the  truth.  The  building  was  probably 
a  charnel-house,  not  a  place  of  worship.  No  tribes 
whatever,  east  of  the  Mississippi,  or  certainly  none  ex- 
cept those  of  the  Natchez  family,  had  a  consecrated 
spot,  or  a  temple,  where  there  was  believed  to  be  a 
nearer  communication  between  this  world  and  that 
which  is  unseen. 

Dreams  are  to  the  wild  man  the  avenue  to  the  in- 


THE    RELIGIOUS    FAITH   OF  THE    RED   MEN. 

CHAP,  visible  world ;  he  reveres  them  as  divine  revelations, 

- — ~  and  believes  he  shall  die  unless  they  are  carried  into 
effect.  The  capricious  visions  in  a  feverish  sleep  are 
obeyed  by  the  village  or  the  tribe  ;  the  whole  nation 
would  contribute  its  harvest,  its  costly  furs,  its  belts  of 
beads,  the  produce  of  its -chase,  rather  than  fail  in  their 
fulfilment;  the  dream  must  be  obeyed,  even  if  it  re- 

R?638°n  quired  the  surrender  of  women  to  a  public  embrace. 

P.  1525  The  faith  in  the  spiritual  world,  as  revealed  by  dreams, 
was  universal.  On  Lake  Superior,  the  nephew  of  a 
Chippewa  squaw  having  dreamed  that  he  saw  a 

jjgj;  French  dog,  the  woman  travelled  four  hundred  leagues, 
in  midwinter,  over  ice  and  through  snows,  to  obtain 

}g4>    it.     Life  itself  was  hazarded,  rather  than  fail  to  listen 

96"99'  to  the  message  conveyed  through  sleep ;  and,  if  it  could 
not  be  fulfilled,  at  least  some  semblance  would  be  made. 
Happy  was  the  hunter  who,  as  he  went  forth  to  the 
chase,  obtained  a  vision  of  the  great  spirit  of  the  an- 
imal which  he  was  to  pursue ;  the  sight  was  a  war- 
rant of  success.  But  if  the  dream  should  be  threaten 
ing,  the  savage  would  rise  in  the  night,  or  prevent  the 
dawn  with  prayer ;  or  he  would  call  around  him  his 
friends  and  neighbors,  and  himself  keep  waking  and 

Hams,   fasting,  with  invocations,  for  many  days  and  nights. 

The  Indian  invoked  the  friendship  of  spirits,  and 
sought  the  mediation  of  medicine  men ;  but  he  never 
would  confess  his  fear  of  death.  To  him,  also,  intelli- 
gence was  something  more  than  a  transitory  accident ; 
and  he  was  unable  to  conceive  of  a  cessation  of  life 
His  faith  in  immortality  was  like  that  of  the  child,  who 
weeps  over  the  dead  body  of  its  mother,  and  believes 
that  she  yet  lives.  At  the  bottom  of  a  grave,  the 

Relation  melting  snows  had  left  a  little  water ;  and  the  sight 

20,21.   of  it  chilled  and  saddened   his    imagination.      "  You 


THE    RELIGIOUS    FAITH   OF  THE    RED   MEN.  296 

have  had  no  compassion  for  my  poor  brother" — such  CHAP. 
was  the  reproach  of  an  Algonquin ; — "  the  air  is  pleas-  <• — ^- 
ant,  and  the  sun  so  cheering,  and  yet  you  do  not  re-   je^ 
move  the  snow  from  his  grave  to  warm  him  a  little;"   50,51' 
and  he  knew  no  contentment  till  this  was  done. 

The  same  motive  prompted  them  to  bury  with  the 
warrior  his  pipe  and  his  manitou,  his  tomahawk, 
quiver,  and  bow  ready  bent  for  action,  and  his  most 
splendid  apparel ;  to  place  by  his  side  his  bowl,  his 
maize,  and  his  venison,  for  the  long  journey  to  the 
country  of  his  ancestors.  Festivals  in  honor  of  the 

Relation 

dead  were  also  frequent,  when  a  part  of  the  food  was 
given  to  the  flames,  that  so  it  might  serve  to  nourish 
the  departed.  The  traveller  would  find  in  the  forests 
a  dead  body  placed  on  a  scaffold  erected  upon  piles, 
carefully  wrapped  in  bark  for  its  shroud,  and  attired  in 
warmest  furs.  If  a  mother  lost  her  babe,  she  would  1634,' 
cover  it  with  bark,  and  envelop  it  anxiously  in  the 
softest  beaver-skins ;  at  the  burial-place,  she  would 
put  by  its  side  its  cradle,  its  beads,  and  its  rattles; 
and,  as  a  last  service  of  maternal  love,  would  draw 
milk  from  her  bosom  in  a  cup  of  bark,  and  burn  it  in 
the  fire,  that  her  infant  might  still  find  nourishment 
on  its  solitary  journey  to  the  land  of  shades.  Yet  the 
new-born  babe  would  be  buried,  not,  as  usual,  on  a 
scaffold,  but  by  the  wayside,  that  so  its  spirit  might  Brebeut 
secretly  steal  into  the  bosom  of  some  passing  matron, 
and  be  born  again  under  happier  auspices.  On  bury-  Henry • 
ing  her  daughter,  the  Chippewa  mother  adds,  not  I3K8' 
snow-shoes,  and  beads,  and  moccasons,  only,  but  (sad 
emblem  of  woman's  lot  in  the  wilderness !)  the  carry- 
ing-belt and  the  paddle.  "I  know  my  daughter  will 
be  restored  to  me,"  she  once  said,  as  she  clipped  a  lock 
of  hair  as  a  memorial ;  "  by  this  lock  of  hair  I  shall  dis- 


296  THE   RELIGIOUS    FAITH    OF   THE    RED  MEN. 

• 

CHAP,  cover  her,  for  I  shall  take  it  with  me,"  —  alluding  to 

-  -  the  day  when  she,  too,  with  her  carrying-belt  and  pad- 
dle, and  the  little  relic  of  her  child,  should  pass  through 
the  grave  to  the  dwelling-place  of  her  ancestors. 

It  was  believed,  even,  that  living  men  had  visited 
the  remote  region  where  the  shadows  have  their  home  ; 

Brebeuf  and  that  once,  like  Orpheus  of  old,  a  brother,  wander- 
ing in  search  of  a  cherished  sister,  but  for  untimely  cu- 
riosity, would  have  drawn  her  from  the  society  of  the 
dead,  and  restored  her  to  the  cabin  of  her  fathers.  In 
the  flashes  of  the  northern  lights,  men  believed  they 

T32$Lcr'  saw  the  dance  of  the  dead.  But  the  south-west  is  the 
great  subject  of  traditions.  There  is  the  court  of  the 
Great  God  ;  there  is  the  paradise  where  beans  and 

R.WU-  maize  grow  spontaneously;  there  are  the  shades  of 
the  forefathers  of  the  red  men. 

This  form  of  faith  in  immortality  had  also  its 
crimes.  It  is  related  that  the  chief  within  whose 
territory  De  Soto  died,  selected  two  young  and  well- 
proportioned  Indians  to  be  put  to  death,  saying  the 
usage  of  the  country  was,  when  any  lord  died,  to  kill 
Indians  to  wait  on  him  and  serve  him  by  the  way. 
Traces  of  an  analogous  superstition  may  be  found 

Tal£eof  among  Algonquin  tribes,  and  among  the  Sioux;  the 
west,  Winnebagoes  are  said  to  have  observed  the  usage 
Lett,  within  the  memory  of  persons  now  living  ;  it  is  af- 
firmed,  also,  of  the  Natchez,  and  doubtless  with  truth, 
though  the  details  of  the  sacrifice  are  described  with 
wild  exaggeration.  Even  now,  the  Dahcotas  will  slay 
horses  on  the  grave  of  a  warrior  :  news  has  come  from 
the  Great  Spirit,  that  the  departed  chief  is  still  borne 
by  them  in  the  land  of  shades  ;  and  the  spirits  of  the 
mighty  dead  have  sometimes  been  seen,  as  they  ride, 
in  the  night-time,  through  the  sky. 


rortu- 


THE    RELIGIOUS    FAITH   OF   THE   RED  MEN.  297 

The  savage  believed  that  to  every  man  there  is  an  CHAP 

XXII 

appointed  time  to  die ;  to  anticipate  that  period  by  su 

icide,  was  detested  as  the  meanest  cowardice.  For  the 
dead  he  abounds  in  his  lamentations,  mingling  them 
with  words  of  comfort  to  the  living :  to  him  death  is 
the  king  of  terrors.  He  never  names  the  name  of  the 
departed ;  to  do  so  is  an  offence  justifying  revenge. 
To  speak  generally  of  brothers  to  one  who  has  lost  her 
own,  would  be  an  injury,  for  it  would  make  her  weep 
because  her  brothers  are  no  more ;  and  the  missionary 
could  not  speak  of  the  Father  of  man  to  orphans,  with- 
out kindling  indignation.  And  yet  they  summon  ener- 
gy to  speak  of  their  own  approaching  death  with  tran- 
quillity "Full  happy  am  I,"  sings  the  warrior,  "full  Jg£ 
happy  am  I  to  be  slain  within  the  limits  of  the  land  p'4' 
of  the  enemy!"  While  yet  alive,  the  dying  chief 
sometimes  arrayed  himself  in  the  garments  in  which  he 
was  to  be  buried,  and,  giving  a  farewell  festival,  calmly 
chanted  his  last  song,  or  made  a  last  harangue,  glorying 
in  the  remembrance  of  his  deeds,  and  commending  to  ££91 
his  friends  the  care  of  those  whom  he  loved ;  and 
when  he  had  given  up  the  ghost,  he  was  placed  by  his 
wigwam  in  a  sitting  posture,  as  if  to  show  that, 
though  life  was  spent,  the  principle  of  being  was  not 
gone ;  and  in  that  posture  he  was  buried.  Every 
where  in  America  this  posture  was  adopted  at  burials. 
From  Canada  to  Patagonia,  it  was  the  usage  of  every 
nation — an  evidence  that  some  common  sympathy  per- 
vaded the  continent,  and  struck  a  chord  which  vibrated 
through  the  heart  of  a  race.  The  narrow  house,  with- 
in which  the  warrior  sat,  was  often  hedged  round  with 
a  light  palisade ;  and,  for  six  months,  the  women  would 
repair  to  it  thrice  a  day  to  weep.  He  that  should  de- 
spoil the  dead  was  accursed. 
VOL.  in.  38 


298         THE  RELIGIOUS  FAITH  OF  THE  RED  MEN. 

CHAP  The  faith,  as  well  as  the  sympathies,  of  the  savage  de- 
"^v^~;  scended  also  to  inferior  beings.  Of  each  kind  of  animal 
they  say  there  exists  one,  the  source  and  origin  of  all, 
of  a  vast  size,  the  type  and  original  of  the  whole  class. 
From  the  immense  invisible  beaver  come  all  the  beavers, 
by  whatever  run  of  water  they  are  found  ;  the  same 
is  true  of  the  elk  and  buffalo,  of  the  eagle  and  the  rob- 
in, of  the  meanest  quadruped  of  the  forest,  of  the  small- 
est insect  that  buzzes  in  the  air.  There  lives  for  each 
class  of  animals  this  invisible,  vast  type,  or  elder  broth- 
er. Thus  the  savage  established  his  right  to  be  classed 
by  philosophers  in  the  rank  of  realists  ;  and  his  chief 
effort  at  generalization  was  a  reverent  exercise  of  the 
religious  sentiment.  Where  these  elder  brothers  dwell 
they  do  not  exactly  know;  yet  it  may  be  that  the 
giant  manitous,  which  are  brothers  to  beasts,  are  hid 
beneath  the  waters,  and  that  those  of  the  birds  make 
their  homes  in  the  blue  sky.  But  the  Indian  believes 
also,  of  each  individual  animal,  that  it  possesses  the 
mysterious,  the  indestructible  principle  of  life  :  there  is 
not  a  breathing  thing  but  has  its  shade,  which  never 
can  perish.  Regarding  himself,  in  comparison  with 
other  animals,  but  as  the  first  among  coordinate  exist- 
ences, he  respects  the  brute  creation,  and  assigns  to  it, 
com.  as  to  himself,  a  perpetuity  of  being.  "  The  ancients  of 
these  lands"  believed  that  the  warrior,  when  released 
from  life,  renews  the  passions  and  activity  of  this 
world  ;  is  seated  once  more  among  his  friends  ;  shares 
again  the  joyous  feast  ;  walks  through  shadowy  forests, 
that  are  alive  with  the  spirits  of  birds  ;  and  there,  in 
his  paradise, 

"  By  midnight  moons,  o'er  moistening  dews, 

In  vestments  for  the  chase  arrayed, 
Fr<s-  The  hunter  still  the  deer  pursues  — 

The  hunter  and  the  deer  a  shade." 


THE    RELIGIOUS    FAITH    OF  THE   RED   MEN. 

To  the  Indian  the  prospect  of  his  own  paradise  was  CIUP 
dear.  "We  raise  not  our  thoughts,"  they  would  say  ^~ 
to  the  missionaries,  "  to  your  heaven ;  we  desire  only 

....  «       rr»         i         -i  •  r        Relation 

the  paradise  of  our  ancestors."     lo  the  doctrine  or  a    }«g» 
future  life  they  listened  readily.    The  idea  of  retribu-    p- 9r' 
tion,  as  far  as  it  has  found  its  way  among  them,  was 
derived  from  Europeans.     The  future  life  was  to  the 
Indian,  like  the  present,  a  free  gift ;  some,  it  was  in- 
deed believed,  from  feebleness  or  age,  did  not  reach 
the  paradise  of  shades ;  but  no  red  man  was  so  proud 
as  to  believe  that  its  portals  were  opened  to  him  by 
his  own  good  deeds. 

Their  notion  of  immortality  was,  as  we  have  seen, 
a  faith  in  the  continuance  of  life  ;  they  did  not  expect 
a  general  resurrection ;  nor  could  they  be  induced,  in 
any  way,  to  believe  that  the  body  will  be  raised  up 
Yet  no  nations  paid  greater  regard  to  the  remains  of 
their  ancestors.  Every  where  among  the  Choctas  and 
the  Wyandots,  Cherokees  and  Algonquins,  they  were 
carefully  wrapped  in  choicest  furs,  and  preserved  with 
affectionate  veneration.  Once  every  few  years,  the 
Hurons  collected  from  their  scattered  cemeteries  the 
bones  of  their  dead,  and,  in  the  midst  of  great  solemni- 
ties, cleansed  them  from  every  remainder  of  flesh,  and 
deposited  them  in  one  common  grave  :  these  are  their 
holy  relics.  Other  nations  possess,  in  letters  and  the 
arts,  enduring  monuments  of  their  ancestors ;  the  sav- 
age red  men,  who  can  point  to  no  obelisk  or  column, 
whose  rude  implements  of  agriculture  could  not  even 
raise  a  furrow  on  the  surface  of  the  earth,  excel  all 
races  in  veneration  for  the  dead.  The  grave  is  their 
only  monument, — the  bones  of  their  fathers  the  only 
pledges  of  their  history. 

A  deeper  interest  belongs  to  the  question  of  the 


300  NATURAL    ENDOWMENTS    OF   MIND  AND   BODY. 

CHAP,  natural  relation  of  the  aborigines  of  America  to  those 
before  whom  they  have  fled.  "We  are  men,"  said 
the  Illinois  to  Marquette.  After  illustrating  the  weak- 
nesses of  the  Wyandots,  Brebeuf  adds,  "They  are 
men."  The  natives  of  America  were  men  and  women 
of  like  endowments  with  their  more  cultivated  con- 
querors ;  they  have  the  same  affections,  and  the  same 
powers ;  are  chilled  with  an  ague,  and  burn  with  a 
fever.  We  may  call  them  savage,  just  as  we  call  fruits 
wild ;  natural  right  governs  them.  They  revere  un- 
seen powers ;  they  respect  the  nuptial  ties ;  they  are 
careful  of  their  dead :  their  religion,  their  marriages, 
and  their  burials,  show  them  possessed  of  the  habits 
of  humanity,  and  bound  by  a  federative  compact  to  the 
race.  They  had  the  moral  faculty  which  can  recog- 
nize the  distinction  between  right  and  wrong ;  nor  did 
their  judgments  of  relations  bend  to  their  habits  and 
passions  more  decidedly  than  those  of  the  nations 
whose  laws  justified,  whose  statesmen  applauded, 
whose  sovereigns  personally  shared,  the  invasion  of  a 
continent  to  steal  its  sons.  If  they  readily  yielded  to 
the  impetuosity  of  selfishness,  they  never  made  their 
own  personality  the  centre  of  the  universe.  They 
were  faithless  treaty-breakers ;  but,  at  least,  they  did 
not  exalt  falsehood  into  the  dignity  of  a  political  sci- 
ence, or  scoff  at  the  supremacy  of  justice  as  the  delu- 
sive hope  of  fools ;  and,  if  they  made  every  thing  yield 
to  self-preservation,  they  never  avowed  their  interest 
to  be  the  first  law  of  international  policy.  They  had 
never  risen  to  the  conceptions  of  a  spiritual  religion , 
out  as  between  the  French  and  the  natives,  the  latter 
— such  is  the  assertion  of  St.  Mary  of  the  Incarnation — 
had  even  a  greater  tendency  to  devotion.  Under  the 
instructions  of  the  Jesuits,  they  learned  to  swing  cen- 


NATURAL  ENDOWMENTS   OF  MIND  AND   BODY.  301 

sers,  and  to  chant  aves.     Gathering  round  Eliot,  in  CHAP 

Massachusetts,  the  tawny  choir  sang  the  psalms  of 

David,  in  Indian,  "to  one  of  the  ordinary  English  wusou. 
tunes,  melodiously;"  and  in  the  school  of  Brainerd, 
thirty  Lennape  boys  could  answer  to  all  the  questions  timjJEd 
in  the  Westminster  Assembly's  Catechism.  There  iij  53i' 
were  instances  of  the  submission  of  warriors  to  the 
penance  imposed  by  the  Roman  church ;  and  the  sanc- 
tity of  a  Mohawk  maiden, — the  American  Geneveva, — 
who  preserved  her  vows  of  chastity,  is  celebrated  in 
the  early  histories  of  New  France.  They  recognized 
the  connection  between  the  principles  of  Christian 
morals ;  there  were  examples  among  them  of  men 
who,  under  the  guidance  of  missionaries,  became  anx- 
ious for  their  salvation,  having  faith  enough  for  despair, 
if  not  for  conversion ;  and  even  in  the  doctrine  of  the 
divine  unity,  they  seemed  to  find  not  so  much  a  novel-  s^f 
ty  as  the  revival  of  a  slumbering  reminiscence.  They 
were  not  good  arithmeticians ;  their  tales  of  the  num- 
ber of  their  years,  or  of  the  warriors  in  their  clans,  are 
little  to  be  relied  on ;  and  yet  every  where  they  count- 
ed like  Leibnitz  and  La  Place,  and,  from  the  influence 
of  some  law  that  pervades  humanity,  they  began  to  re- 
peat at  ten.  They  could  not  dance  like  those  trained 
to  attitudes  of  grace  ;  they  could  not  sketch  light  orna- 
ments like  Raphael;  yet,  under  every  sky,  they  de- 
lighted in  a  rhythmic  repetition  of  forms  and  sounds, — 
would  move  in  cadence  to  wild  melodies, — and,  with 
great  elegance  and  imitative  power,  they  would  tattoo 
their  skins  with  harmonious  arabesques.  We  call  them 
cruel ;  yet  they  never  invented  the  thumb-screw,  or 
the  boot,  or  the  rack,  or  broke  on  the  wheel,  or  exiled 
bands  of  their  nations  for  opinion's  sake ;  and  never 
protected  the  monopoly  of  a  medicine  man  by  the  s;al- 


302  NATURAL   ENDOWMENTS    OF   MIND  AND   BODI 

.  lows,  or  the  block,  or  by  fire.  There  is  not  a  quality 
belonging  to  the  white  man,  which  did  not  also  belong 
to  the  American  savage ;  there  is  not  among  the  abo- 
rigines a  rule  of  language,  a  custom,  or  an  institution, 
which,  when  considered  in  its  principle,  has  not  a 
counterpart  among  their  conquerors.  The  unity  of  the 
human  race  is  established  by  the  exact  correspondence 
between  their  respective  powers ;  the  Indian  has  not 
one  more,  has  not  one  less,  than  the  wrhite  man  ;  the 
map  of  the  faculties  is  for  both  identical. 

When,  from  the  general  characteristics  of  humanity, 
we  come  to  the  comparison  of  powers,  the  existence 
of  degrees  immediately  appears.  The  red  man  has 
aptitude  at  imitation  rather  than  invention ;  he  learns 
easily ;  his  natural  logic  is  correct  and  discriminating, 
and  he  seizes  on  the  nicest  distinctions  in  comparing 
objects.  But  he  is  deficient  in  the  power  of  imagina- 
tion to  combine  and  bring  unity  into  his  floating  fan- 
cies, and  in  the  faculty  of  abstraction  to  lift  himself  out 
of  the  dominion  of  his  immediate  experience.  He  is 
nearly  destitute  of  abstract  moral  truth, — of  general 
principles ;  and,  as  a  consequence,  equalling  the  white 
man  in  the  sagacity  of  the  senses,  and  in  judgments 
resting  on  them,  he  is  inferior  in  reason  and  the  moral 
qualities.  Nor  is  this  inferiority  simply  attached  to 
the  individual ;  it  is  connected  with  organization,  and 
is  the  characteristic  of  the  race. 

This  is  the  inference  from  history.  Benevolence 
has,  every  where  in  our  land,  exerted  itself  to  amelio* 
rate  the  condition  of  the  Indian, — above  all,  to  educate 
the  young.  Jesuit,  Franciscan,  and  Puritan,  the  Church 
of  England,  the  Moravian,  the  benevolent  founders  of 
schools,  academies,  and  colleges,  all  have  endeavored 
to  change  the  habits  of  the  rising  generation  among 


NATURAL    ENDOWMENTS    OF  MIND  AND    BODY.  303 

the  Indians ,  and  the  results,  in  every  instance,  vary-  CHAP 

ing  in  the  degree  of  influence  exerted  by  the  missiona-  ^ 

ary,  have  varied  in  little  else.  Woman,  too,  with  her 
gentleness,  and  the  winning  enthusiasm  of  her  self- 
sacrificing  benevolence,  has  attempted  their  instruc- 
tion, and  has  attempted  it  in  vain.  St.  Mary  of 
the  Incarnation  succeeded  as  little  as  Jonathan  Ed- 
wards or  Brainerd.  The  Jesuit  Stephen  de  Carheil, 
revered  for  his  genius,  as  well  as  for  his  zeal,  was  for 
more  than  sixty  years,  in  the  seventeenth  and  eigh- 
teenth centuries,  a  missionary  among  the  Huron- 
Iroquois  tribes ;  he  spoke  their  dialects  with  as  much 
facility  and  elegance  as  though  they  had  been  his 
mother-tongue ;  yet  the  fruits  of  his  diligence  were 
inconsiderable.  Neither  John  Eliot  nor  Roger  Wil- 
liams was  able  to  change  essentially  the  habits  and 
character  of  the  New  England  tribes.  The  Quakers 
came  among  the  Delawares  in  the  spirit  of  peace  and 
brotherly  love,  and  with  sincerest  wishes  to  benefit  the 
Indian ;  but  the  Quakers  succeeded  no  better  than  the 
Puritans — not  nearly  as  well  as  the  Jesuits.  Brainerd 
awakened  in  the  Delawares  a  perception  of  the  unity 
of  Christian  morals ;  and  yet  his  account  of  them  is 
gloomy  and  desponding:  "They  are  unspeakably  in- 
dolent and  slothful ;  they  discover  little  gratitude ;  they 
seem  to  have  no  sentiments  of  generosity,  benevolence, 
or  goodness."  The  Moravian  Loskiel  could  not  change 
their  character ;  and,  like  other  tribes,  its  fragments  at 
last  migrated  to  the  west.  The  condition  of  the  little 
Indian  communities,  that  are  enclosed  within  the  Euro- 
pean settlements  in  Canada,  in  Massachusetts,  in  Car- 
olina, is  hardly  cheering  to  the  philanthropist.  In  New 
Hampshire,  and  elsewhere,  schools  for  Indian  children 
were  established ;  but,  as  they  became  fledged,  they 


304  NATURAL   ENDOWMENTS    OF   MIND  AND   BOUT, 

CHAP,  all  escaped,  refusing  to  be  caged.  Harvard  College 
enrolls  the  name  of  an  Algonquin  youth  among  her  pu- 
pils ;  but  the  college  parchment  could  not  close  the 
gulf  between  the  Indian  character  and  the  Anglo- 
American.  The  copper-colored  men  are  characterized 
by  a  moral  inflexibility,  a  rigidity  of  attachment  to 
their  hereditary  customs  and  manners.  The  birds  and 
the  brooks,  as  they  chime  forth  their  unwearied  canti- 
cles, chime  them  ever  to  the  same  ancient  melodies , 
and  the  Indian  child,  as  it  grows  up,  displays  a  propen- 
sity to  the  habits  of  its  ancestors. 

This  determinateness  of  moral  character  is  marked, 
also,  in  the  organization  of  the  American  savage.  He 
has  little  flexibility  of  features  or  transparency  of  skin ; 
and  therefore,  if  he  depicts  his  passions,  it  is  by  strong 
contortions,  or  the  kindling  of  the  eye,  that  seems 
ready  to  burst  from  its  socket.  He  cannot  blush ;  the 
movement  of  his  blood  does  not  visibly  represent  the 
movement  of  his  affections :  for  him  the  domain  of  an- 
imated beauty  is  circumscribed ;  ho  cannot  paint  to 
the  eye  the  emotions  of  moral  sensibility. 

This  effect  is  heightened  by  a  uniformity  of  intel- 
lectual culture  and  activity.  Youth  and  manhood  to 
all  have  but  one  character ;  and  where  villages  were 
scattered  only  at  widest  distances  in  the  wilderness, — 
where  marriage,  interdicted,  indeed,  between  members 
of  the  same  family  badge,  was  yet  usually  limited  to 
people  of  the  same  tribe, — ties  of  blood  united  the  na- 
tion, and  the  purity  of  the  race  increased  the  unifor. 
mity  of  organization.  Each  individual  was  marked, 
not  so  much  by  personal  peculiarities,  as  by  the  physi- 
ognomy of  his  tribe. 

Thus  Nature  in  the  wilderness  is  true  to  her  type:, 
and  deformitv  is  almost  unknown.  How  rare  is  it  to 


NATURAL    ENDOWMENTS    OF  MIND  AND    BODY.  305 

find  the  red  man  squint-eyed,  or  with  a  diseased  spine,  CHAP 
halt  or  blind,  or  with  any  deficiency  or  excess  in  the  ^^ 
organs  !  It  'is  not  merely  that,  in  the  savage  state  of 
equality,  deformity  would  never  perpetuate  itself,  by 
winning  through  the  aid  of  fortune  what  it  cannot  win 
from  love  ;  it  is  not  merely  that,  among  barbarians,  the 
feeble  and  the  misshaped  perish  from  neglect  or  fa- 
tigue ;  the  most  refined  nation  is  most  liable  to  pro- 
duce varieties,  and  to  degenerate  ;  when  the  habits  of 
uncivilized  simplicity  have  been  fixed  for  thousands  of 
years,  the  hereditary  organization  is  safe  against  mon- 
strous deviations. 

This  inflexibility  of  organization  will  not  even  yield 
to  climate  :  there  is  the  same  general  resemblance  of 
feature  among  all  the  aboriginal  inhabitants,  from  the 
Terra  del  Fuego  to  the  St.  Lawrence  ;  all  have  some 
shade  of  the  same  dull  vermilion,  or  cinnamon,  or  red- 
dish brown,  or  copper  color,  carefully  to  be  distin- 
guished from  the  olive,  —  the  same  dark  and  glossy 
hair,  coarse,  and  never  curling.  They  have  beards, 
but  generally  of  feeble  growth  ;  their  eye  is  elongated, 
having  an  orbit  inclining  to  a  quadrangular  shape  ;  the 
cheek-bones  are  prominent  ;  the  nose  is  broad  ;  the 
jaws  project  the  lips  are  large  and  thick,  giving  to 
the  mouth  an  expression  of  indolent  insensibility  ;  the 
forehead,  as  compared  with  Europeans,  is  narrow.  The 
facial  angle  of  the  European  is  assumed  to  be  eighty- 
seven  ;  that  of  the  American,  by  induction  from  many 
admeasurements,  is  declared  to  be  seventy-five.  The 
mean  internal  capacity  of  the  skull  of  the  former  is 
eighty-seven  cubic  inches  ;  of  the  barbarous  tribes  of 
the  latter,  it  is  found  to  be,  at  least,  eighty-two. 

And  yet  the  inflexibility  of  organization  is  not  so 
absolute  as  to  forbid  hope.     The  color  of  the  tribes 
VOL    in.  39 


ton's 


306  NATURAL   ENDOWMENTS  OI    MIND  AND   BODY. 

CHAP,  differs  in  its  hue ;  and  some  are  of  so  fair  a  complex 
•^^  ion,  that  the  blood  can  be  seen  as  it  mantles  to  the 
cheek:  the  stature  and  form  vary,  so  that  not  only  are 
some  nations  tall  and  slender,  but  in  the  same  nation 
there  are  contrasts. 

Improvement,  too,  has  pervaded  every  clan  in  North 
America.  The  Indian  of  to-day  excels  his  ancestors  in 
skill,  in  power  over  nature,  and  in  knowledge ;  the 
gun,  the  knife,  and  the  horse,  of  themselves  made  a 
revolution  in  his  condition  and  the  current  of  his  ideas : 
that  the  wife  of  the  white  man  is  cherished  as  his 
equal,  has  already  been  dimly  noised  about  in  the  huts 
of  the  Comanches ;  the  idea  of  the  Great  Spirit,  who 
is  the  master  of  life,  has  reached  the  remote  prairies. 
How  slowly  did  the  condition  of  the  common  people 
of  Europe  make  advances !  For  how  many  centuries 
did  the  knowledge  of  letters  remain  unknown  to  the 
peasant  of  Germany  or  France !  How  languidly  did 
civilization  pervade  the  valleys  of  the  Pyrenees  !  How 
far  is  intellectual  culture  from  having  reached  the  peas- 
antry of  Hungary !  Within  the  century  and  a  half 
during  which  the  Cherokees  have  been  acquainted  with 
Europeans,  they  have  learned  the  use  of  the  plough 
and  the  axe,  of  herds  and  flocks,  of  the  printing-press 
and  water-mills ;  they  have  gained  a  mastery  over  the 
fields,  and  have  taught  the  streams  to  run  for  their  ben- 
efit. And  finally,  in  proof  of  progress,  that  nation,  like 
the  Choctas,  the  Creeks,  the  Chippewas,  the  Winne- 
bagoes,  and  other  tribes,  has  increased,  not  in  intelli- 
gence only,  but  in  numbers. 

"  Whence  was  America  peopled  ?  "  was  the  anxious 
inquiry  that  followed  its  discovery.  "Whence  came  its 
trees  and  its  grasses  ? "  was  asked,  by  way  of  excuse 
for  indifference.  But  we  keep  the  record  of  the  intro- 


CONNECTION  OF  THE  RED  MAN  WITH  OTHER  RACES.          307 

duction  of  many  titcs  and  grasses ;  and,  though  this  CHAP. 

continent  was  peopled  before  it  became  known  to  his '' 

torj,  it  is  yet  reasonable  to  search  after  traces  of  con- 
nection between  the  nations  of  America  and  those  of 
the  Old  World. 

To  aid  this  inquiry,  the  country  east  of  the  Missis- 
sippi has  no  monuments.  The  numerous  mounds 
which  have  been  discovered  in  the  alluvial  valleys  of 
the  west,  have  by  some  been  regarded  as  the  works 
of  an  earlier  and  more  cultivated  race  of  men,  whose 
cities  have  been  laid  waste,  whose  language  and  insti- 
tutions have  been  destroyed  or  driven  away ;  but  the 
study  of  the  structure  of  the  earth  strips«this  imposing 
theory  of  its  marvels.  Where  imagination  fashions 
relics  of  artificial  walls,  geology  sees  but  crumbs  of  de- 
caying sandstone,  clinging  like  the  remains  of  mortar 
to  blocks  of  greenstone  that  rested  on  it ;  it  discovers 
in  parallel  intrenchments  a  trough,  that  subsiding  wa- 
ters have  ploughed  through  the  centre  of  a  ridge ;  it 
explains  the  tessellated  pavement  to  be  but  a  layer  of 
pebbles  aptly  joined  by  water ;  and,  on  examining  the 
mounds,  and  finding  them  composed  of  different  strata 
of  earth,  arranged  horizontally  to  their  very  edge,  it 
ascribes  their  creation  to  the  Power  that  shaped  the 
globe  into  vales  and  hillocks.  When  the  waters  had 
gently  deposited  their  alluvial  burden  on  the  bosom  of 
the  earth,  it  is  not  strange  that,  of  the  fantastic  forms 
shaped  by  the  eddies,  some  should  resemble  the  ruins 
of  a  fortress ;  that  the  channel  of  a  torrent  should  seem 
even  like  \valls  that  connected  a  town  with  its  harbor ; 
that  natural  cones  should  be  esteemed  monuments  of 
inexplicable  toil.  But  the  elements,  as  they  crumble 
the  mountain,  and  scatter  the  decomposed  rocks,  do 
not  measure  their  action  as  men  measure  the  labor  of 


308    CONNECTION  OF  THE  RED  MAN  WITH  OTHER  RACES. 

CHAP,  their  hands.  The  hunters  of  old,  as  more  recently  the 
~~+^  monks  of  La  Trappe,  may  have  selected  a  mound  as 
the  site  of  their  dwellings,  the  aid  to  their  rude  fortifi- 
cations, their  watchtower  for  gaining  a  vision  of  God, 
or,  more  frequently  than  all,  as  their  burial-places. 
Most  of  the  northern  tribes,  perhaps  all,  preserved  the 
bones  of  their  fathers;  and  the  festival  of  the  dead  was 
the  greatest  ceremony  of  western  faith.  When  Na- 
ture has  taken  to  herself  her  share  in  the  construction 
of  the  symmetrical  hillocks,  nothing  will  remain  to 
warrant  the  inference  of  a  high  civilization,  that  has 
left  its  abodes  or  died  away,  —  of  an  earlier  acquaint- 
ance with  thwarts  of  the  Old  World.  That  there  have 
been  successive  irruptions  of  rude  tribes,  may  be  in- 
ferred from  the  insulated  fragments  of  nations,  which 
are  clearly  distinguished  by  their  language.  The 
mounds  in  the  valley  of  the  Mississippi  have  also  been 
used  —  the  smaller  ones,  perhaps,  have  been  construct- 
Jt  0>  ed  —  as  burial-places  of  a  race,  of  which  the  peculiar 
organization,  as  seen  in  the  broader  forehead,  the 
larger  facial  angle,  the  less  angular  figure  of  the  orbits 
of  the  eye,  the  more  narrow  nose,  the  less  evident  pro- 
jection  of  the  jaws,  the  smaller  dimensions  of  the  pala- 
Be"*orei-  tme  fossa,  the  flattened  occiput,  bears  a  surprisingly 
Nervous  exact  resemblance  to  that  of  the  race  of  nobles  who 
138>  sleep  in  the  ancient  tombs  of  Peru.  Retaining  the 
general  characteristics  of  the  red  race,  they  differ  obvi- 
ously from  the  present  tribes  of  Miamis  and  Wyan- 
dots.  These  mouldering  bones,  from  hillocks  which 
are  crowned  by  trees  that  have  defied  the  storms  of 
many  centuries,  raise  bewildering  visions  of  migrations, 
of  which  no  tangible  traditions  exist  ;  but  the  graves 
of  earth  from  which  they  are  dug,  and  the  feeble  forti- 
fications that  are  sometimes  found  in  their  vicinity, 


water, 
Trans 


CONNECTION    OF  THE   RED   MAN  WITH   OTHER    RACES.         309 

afford   no  special   evidence  of  early  connection   with  CHAR 
other  continents.    "  Among  the  more  ancient  works,"  — ^~ 

says  a  careful  observer,  who  is  not  disposed  to  under-  pSre8 
i       •     >f  c  i  -i  of  cm- 

value  the  significancy  of  these  silent  monuments,  near  cinmui, 

which  he  dwells,  and  which  he  has  carefully  explored, 
"  there  is  not  a  single  edifice,  nor  any  ruins  which 
prove  the  existence,  in  former  ages,  of  a  building  com-  Anliq 
posed  of  imperishable  materials.  No  fragment  of  a  j 
column,  nor  a  brick,  nor  a  single  hewn  stone  large 
enough  to  have  been  incorporated  into  a  wall,  has  been 
discovered.  The  only  relics  which  remain  to  inflame 
curiosity,  are  composed  of  earth."  Some  of  the  tribes 
had  vessels  made  of  clay ;  near  Natchez,  an  image  was 
found,  of  a  substance  not  harder  than  clay  dried  in  the 
sun.  These  few  memorials  of  other  days  may  indicate 
revolutions  among  the  barbarous  hordes  of  the  Ameri- 

o 

cans  themselves  ;  they  cannot  solve  for  the  inquirer  the 
problem  of  their  origin. 

Nor  is  it  safe  to  place  implicit  reliance  on  tradition. 
The  ideas  of  uncultivated  nations  are  vaguely  connect- 
ed ;  and  pressing  want  compels  the  mind  to  be  indif- 
ferent to  the  past,  not  less  than  careless  of  the  future. 
Time  obliterates  facts,  or  introduces  confusion  of  mem- 
ory, or  buries  one  tradition  beneath  another.  Yet  the 
tradition  of  the  Delawares  may  be  repeated  in  this 
connection, — that  tribes  of  the  Algonquin  and  Wyan- 
dot  families  expelled  from  the  basin  of  the  Ohio  its 
ancient  tenants,  and  that  the  fugitives  descended  the 
Mississippi  to  renew  their  villages  under  a  warmer  sun. 
Vague  indeed  as  must  be  the  shadows  that  glimmer 
across  the  silent  darkness  of  intervening  centuries, 
physiologists  have  yet  convinced  themselves  that  they 
can  trace,  in  the  bones  which  time  has  not  wholly 
crumbled,  evidence  of  the  extent  of  the  Toltecan  fam- 


310         CONNECTION   OF  THE    RED  MAN    WITH   OTHER    RACES. 

CHAr.  ily  from  the  heart   of  North  America   to  the  Andes. 

-  ~  The  inference  has  no  natural  improbability.  We  know 
the  wide  range  of  the  Indian  brave  ;  the  kindred  of 
the  Athapasca  race  spread  from  the  Kina'izian  Gulf  to 
.  Hudson's  Bay;  the  Algonquin  was  spoken  from  the 
Missinipi  to  Cape  Fear;  the  Dahcotas  extend  from  the 
Saskatchawan  beyond  the  basin  of  the  Arkansas.  It 
would  not  be  strange  if,  in  the  thousands  of  years  from 
which  no  echo  is  to  reach  us,  men  of  one  American 
family  had  bowed  to  the  sun  in  the  southern  valley  of 
the  Mississippi  and  within  the  tropics.  The  Chiti- 
Du  mechas  of  Louisiana,  improperly  confounded  with  the 
Natchez,  were  on  the  same  low  stage  of  civilization 


ciavige-  with  the  Chechemecas,  who  are  described  as  having 
entered  Mexico  from  the  north.  But  comparative  anat- 
omy, as  it  has  questioned  the  graves,  and  compared  its 
deductions  with  the  traditions  and  present  customs  of 
the  tribes,  has  not  even  led  to  safe  inferences  respect- 
ing the  relations  of  the  red  nations  among  themselves  ; 
far  less  has  it  succeeded  in  tracing  their  wanderings 
from  continent  to  continent. 

Neither  do  the  few  resemblances  that  have  been 
discovered  between  the  roots  of  words  in  American 
languages,  on  the  one  hand,  and  those  of  Asia  or  Eu- 
rope, on  the  other,  afford  historical  evidence  of  any 
connection.  The  human  voice  articulates  hardly  twen- 
ty distinct,  primitive  sounds  or  letters  :  would  it  not 
be  strange,  then,  were  there  no  accidental  resem- 
blances ?  Of  all  European  languages,  the  Greek  is  the 
most  flexible  ;  and  it  is  that  which  most  easily  fur- 
nishes roots  analogous  to  those  of  America.  Not  one 
clear  coincidence  has  been  traced  beyond  accide 
Hard  by  Pamlico  Sound  dwelt,  and  apparently  b 
dwelt  for  centuries,  branches  of  the  Algonquin,  t! 


CONNECTION   OF   THE   RED   MAN   WITH   OTHER   RACES.         3ll 

Huron-Iroquois,  and  the  Catawba  families.    But  though  CHAP 

/»•!••  A.X  1  1. 

these  nations  were  in  the  same  state  of  civilization,  ^  — 
were  mingled  by  wars  and  captures,  by  embassies  and 
alliances;  though  they  had  a  common  character  in  the 
organization  of  their  language,  as  well  as  in  their  cus- 
toms, government,  and  pursuits;  yet  each  was  found 
employing  a  language  of  its  own.  If  resemblances 
cannot  be  traced  between  two  families  that  have  dwelt 
side  by  side  apparently  for  centuries,  who  will  hope  to 
recover  the  traces  of  the  mother  tongue  in  Siberia  or 
China?  The  results  of  comparison  'have  thus  far  re- 
buked, rather  than  satisfied,  curiosity. 

It  is  still  more  evident,  that  similarity  of  customs  fur- 
nishes no  basis  for  satisfactory  conclusions.  The  same 
kinds  of  knowledge  may  have  been  repeatedly  reached  ; 
the  same  customs  are  naturally  formed  under  similar 
circumstances.  The  manifest  repetition  of  artificial 
peculiarities  would  prove  a  connection  among  nations  ; 
but  all  the  customs  consequent  on  the  regular  wants 
and  infirmities  of  the  human  system,  would  be  likely 
of  themselves  to  be  repeated  ;  and,  as  for  inventions 
and  arts,  they  only  offer  new  sources  for  measuring  the 
capacity  of  human  invention  in  its  barbarous  or  semi- 
civilized  state. 

It  is  chiefly  on  supposed  analogies  of  customs  and 
of  language,  that  the  lost  tribes  of  Israel,  "  who  took 
counsel  to  go  forth  into  a  farther  country,  where  never 
mankind  dwelt,"  have  been  discovered,  now  in  the 
bark  cabins  of  North  America,  now  in  the  secluded 
valleys  of  the  Tennessee,  and  again,  as  the  authors  of 
culture,  on  the  plains  of  the  Cordilleras.  We  cannot 
tell  the  origin  of  the  Goths  and  Celts  ;  proud  as  we  are 
of  our  lineage,  we  cannot  trace  our  own  descent  ;  and 
ive  strive  to  identify,  in  the  most  western  part  of  Asia, 


' 


CONNECTION  OF  THE    RED    MAN    WITH   OTHER   RACES 

CHAP,  the  very  hills  and  valleys  among  which  the  ancestors  of 
1 — v^  our  red  men  had  their  dwellings !  Humanity  has  a  com- 
mon character.  The  ingenious  scholar  may  find  analo- 
gies in  language,  customs,  institutions,  and  religion,  be- 
tween the  aborigines  of  America  and  any  nation  what- 
ever of  the  Old  World :  the  pious  curiosity  of  Christen- 
dom, and  not  a  peculiar  coincidence,  has  created  a 
special  disposition  to  discover  a  connection  between 
them  and  the  Hebrews.  Inquirers  into  Jewish  his- 
tory, observing  faint  resemblances  between  their  own 
religious  faith  and  that  of  the  American,  have  sought 
to  trace  the  origin  of  common  ideas  to  tradition  from 
the  same  nation  and  the  same  sacred  books, — when 
they  should  not  have  rested  in  their  pursuit  of  a  com-, 
mon  source,  till  they  had  reached  the  Fountain  of  all 
knowledge  and  the  Author  of  all  being. 

The  Egyptians  used  hieroglyphics ;  so  did  the  Mex- 
icans, and  the  Pawnees,  and  the  Five  Nations.  Among 
the  Algonquins  nowr,  a  man  is  represented  by  a  rude 
figure  of  a  body,  surmounted  by  the  head  of  the  animal 
which  gives  a  badge  to  his  family;  on  the  Egyptian 
pictures,  men  are  found  designated  in  the  same  way. 
But  did  North  America,  therefore,  send  its  envoys  to 
the  court  of  Sesostris? 

The  Carthaginians,  of  all  ancient  nations,  cultivated 
the  art  of  navigation  with   highest  success.     If  they 
rivalled  Vasco  de  Gama,  why  may  they  not  have  anti- 
cipated Columbus?    And  men  have  seen  on  rocks  in 
America  Phoenician  inscriptions  and  proofs  of  Phoeni- 
cian presence ;   but  these  disappear  before  an  honest 
skepticism.     Besides,  the  Carthaginians  were  histori- 
Arimt  ans  a^so '  an(^  a  Latin  poet  has   preserved  for  us  the 
°fi?imaa,"  express  testimony  of  Himilco,  "  that  the  abyss  beyond 
vm~  the  Columns  of  Hercules  was  to  them  interminable 


CONNECTION  OF  THE    RED  MAN    WITH   OTHER  RACES. 

that  no  mariner  of  theirs  had  ever  guided  a  keel  into  CHAP. 

.A-A.1JU 

that  boundless  deep."  —  ~ 

On  a  rock  by  the  side  of  a  small  New  England 
stream,  where,  even  by  the  aid  of  the  tides,  small  ves- 
sels can  hardly  pass,  a  rude  inscription  has  been  made 
in  a  natural  block  of  gray  granite.     By  unwarranted 
interpolations  and  bold  distortions,  in  defiance  of  count 
less  improbabilities,  the  plastic  power  of  fancy  trans- 
formed the  rude  etching  into  a  Runic  monument  ;  a 
still  more  recent  theory  insists  on  the  analogy  of  its  J?  vSf,1 
forms  with  the  inscriptions  of  Fezzan  and  the  Atlas,    series 

Indians, 

Calm  observers,  in  the  vicinity  of  the  sculptured  rock, 
see  nothing  in  the  design  beyond  the  capacity  of  the 
red  men  of  New  England  ;  and  to  one  intimately  ac- 
quainted with  the  skill  and  manners  of  the  barbarians, 
the  character  of  the  drawing  suggests  its  Algonquin 
origin.  Scandinavians  may  have  reached  the  shores  of 
Labrador  ;  the  soil  of  the  United  States  has  not  one 
vestige  of  their  presence. 

An  ingenious  writer  on  the  maritime  history  of  the  Gufgenes 
Chinese,  finds  traces  of  their  voyages  to  America  in  the  dtfin- 
fifth  century,  and  thus  opens  an  avenue  for  Asiatic  sci-  "«&»* 
ence  to  pass  into  the  kingdom  of  Anahuac;  but  the 
theory  refutes  itself.     If  Chinese  traders  or  emigrants 
came  so  recently  to  America,  there  would  be  customs 
and  language  to  give  evidence  of  it.     Nothing  is  so 
indelible  as  speech  :  sounds  that,  in  ages  of  unknown 
antiquity,  were  spoken  among  the  nations  of  Hindos- 
tan,    still  live  in  their   significancy  in    the    language 
which  we  daily  utter.     The  winged  word  cleaves  its 
way  through  time,  as  well  as  through  space.     If  Chi- 
nese came  to  civilize,  and  came  so  recently,  the  shreds 
of  Asiatic  civilization  would  be  still  clinging  visibly  10 
all  their  works. 

VOL.  in.  40 


314         CONNECTION   OF  THE   RED  MAN   WITH   OTHEK   RACES. 

Nor  does  the  condition  of  astronomical  science  in 
aboriginal  America  prove  a  connection  with  Asia. 
The  red  men  could  not  but  observe  the  pole-star;  and 
even  their  children  could  give  the  names  and  trace  the 
motions  of  the  more  brilliant  groups  of  stars,  of  which 
the  return  marked  the  seasons  ;  but  they  did  not  divide 
the  heavens,  nor  even  a  belt  in  the  heavens,  into  con- 
u  wn  stellations.  It  is  a  curious  coincidence,  that  among 
u!™s>  the  Algonquins  of  the  Atlantic  and  of  the  Mississippi, 
a^e  among  the  Narragarisetts  and  the  Illinois,  the 
north  star  was  called  the  bear.  This  accidental  agree- 
i528,lei53.  ment  with  the  widely-spread  usage  of  the  Old  World, 
iu.04ob.  ls  far  more  observable  than  the  imaginary  resemblance 
between  the  signs  of  the  Mexicans  for  their  days  and 
the  signs  on  the  zodiac  for  the  month  in  Thibet.  The 
American  nation  had  no  zodiac,  and  could  not,  there- 
fore, for  the  names  of  its  days,  have  borrowed  from 
Central  Asia  the  symbols  that  marked  the  path  of  the 
sun  through  the  year.  Nor  had  the  Mexicans  either 
weeks  or  lunar  months  ;  but,  after  the  manner  of  bar- 
barous nations,  they  divided  the  days  in  the  year  into 
eighteen  scores,  leaving  the  few  remaining  days  to  be 
set  apart  by  themselves.  This  division  may  have 
sprung  directly  from  their  system  of  enumeration  ;  it 
need  not  have  been  imported.  It  is  a  greater  marvel, 
that  the  indigenous  inhabitants  of  Mexico  had  a  nearly 
exact  knowledge  of  the  length  of  the  year,  and,  at  the 
Hjjj'  ena<  °f  one  hundred  and  four  years,  made  their  interca- 
lation more  accurately  than  the  Greeks,  the  Romans, 
or  the  Egyptians.  The  length  of  their  tropical  year 
was  almost  identical  with  the  result  obtained  by  the 
astronomers  of  the  caliph  Almamon  ;  but  let  no  one 


<Ju     derive  this  coincidence  from  intercourse,  unless  he  is 

Monde, 

el'iii    prepared  to  believe  that,  in  the  ninth  century  of  our 


CONNECTION  OF  THE  RED  MAN  WITH  OTHER  RACES.    315 

era,  there  was  commerce  between  Mexico  and  Bagdad.  CHAP 

The  agreement  favors  clearly  the  belief  that  Mexico 

did  not  learn  of  Asia ;  for,  at  so  late  a  period,  inter- 
course between  the  continents  would  have  left  its  in- 
disputable traces.  No  inference  is  warranted,  except 
that,  in  the  clear  atmosphere  of  the  table  lands  of  Cen- 
tral America,  the  observers  may  have  watched  success- 
fully the  progress  of  the  seasons ;  that  the  sun  ran  his 
career  as  faithfully  over  the  heights  of  the  Cordilleras 
as  over  the  plains  of  Mesopotamia. 

When  to  this  is  added,  that,  alone  of  mankind,  the 
American  nations  universally  were  ignorant  of  the  pas- 
toral state ;  that  they  kept  neither  sheep  nor  kine ; 
that  they  knew  not  the  use  of  the  milk  of  animals  for 
food  ;  that  they  had  neither  wax  nor  oil ;  that  they  had 
no  iron ; — it  becomes  nearly  certain  that  the  imperfect 
civilization  of  America  is  its  own. 

Yet  the  original  character  of  American  culture  does 
not  insulate  the  American  race.  It  would  not  be  safe 
to  reject  the  possibility  of  an  early  communication  be- 
tween  South  America  and  the  Polynesian  world. 
Nor  can  we  know  what  changes  time  may  have 
wrought  on  the  surface  of  the  globe,  what  islands  may 
have  been  submerged,  what  continents  divided.  But, 
without  resorting  to  the  conjectures  or  the  fancies 
which  geologists  may  suggest,  every  where  around 
us  there  are  signs  of  migrations,  of  which  the  bounda- 
ries cannot  be  set ;  and  the  movement  seems  to  have 
been  towards  the  east  and  south. 

The  number  of  primitive  languages  increases  near 
the  Gulf  of  Mexico ;  and,  as  if  one  nation  had  crowd- 
ed upon  another,  in  the  cane-trakes  of  the  state  of 
Louisiana  there  are  more  independent  languages  than 
are  found  from  the  Arkansas  to  the  pole.  In  like  man- 


316         CONNECTION  OF  THE    RED   MAN    WITH   OTHER  RACES. 

CHAP,  ner,  they  abounded  on  the  plateau  of  Mexico,  the  nat- 

-^•^  ural  highway  of  wanderers.     On  the   western  shore 

of  America,  also,  there  are  more  languages  than  on  the 

east  ;  on  the  Atlantic  coast,  as  if  to  indicate  that  it  had 

never  been  a  thoroughfare,  one  extended  from  Cape 

Fear  to  the  Esquimaux;   on  the  west,   between   the 

latitude  of  forty  degrees  and    the   Esquimaux,   there 

u.1??!  were  at  least  four  or  five.     The  Californians  derived 

•  *.  ft.    their  ancestors  from  the  north  ;  the  Aztecks  preserve 

a  narrative  of  their  northern  origin,  which  their  choice 

of  residence  in  a  mountain  region  confirmed. 

At  the   north,  the  continents  of  Asia  and  America 
nearly  meet.     In  the  latitude  of  sixty-five  degrees  fifty 
minutes,  a  line  across  Behring's  Straits,  from  Cape 
^«fgh-  Prince  of  Wales  to  Cape  Tschowkotskoy,  would  meas- 
tT°Byeah*  ure  a  fraction  less  than  forty-four  geographical  miles  ; 
and  three  small  islands  divide  the  distance. 

But  within  the  latitude  of  fifty-five  degrees,  the 
Aleutian  Isles  stretch  from  the  great  promontory  of 
Alaska  so  far  to  the  west,  that  the  last  of  the  archipel- 
ago is  but  three  hundred  and  sixty  geographical  miles 
from  the  east  of  Kamschatka  ;  and  that  distance  is  so 
divided  by  the  Mednoi  Island  and  the  group  of  Behr- 
ing,  that,  were  boats  to  pass  from  islet  to  islet  from 
Kamschatka  to  Alaska,  the  longest  navigation  in  the 
open  sea  would  not  exceed  two  hundred  geographical 
miles,  and  at  no  moment  need  the  mariner  be  more 
than  forty  leagues  distant  from  land  :  and  a  chain  of 
MI.  fco.  thickly-set  isles  extends  from  the  south  of  Kamschatka 
to  Corea.  Now,  the  'Micmac  on  the  north-east  of  our 
continent  would,  in  his  frail  boat,  venture  thirty  or 
forty  leagues  out  at  sea  :  a  Micmac  savage,  then,  steer- 
ing from  isle  to  isle,  might  in  his  birch-bark  canoe  have 

O  '  O 

made  the  voyage  from  North-West  America  to  China. 


CONNECTION  OF  THE  RED  MAN  WITH  OTHER  RACES.    311 

Water,  ever  a  favorite  highway,  is  especially  the  CHAP. 
highway  of  uncivilized  man :  to  those  who  have  no ' — » — ' 
axes,  the  thick  jungle  is  impervious ;  emigration  by 
water  suits  the  genius  of  savage  life ;  canoes  are  older 
than  wagons,  and  ships  than  chariots;  a  gulf,  a  strait, 
the  sea  intervening  between  islands,  divide  less  than 
the  matted  forest.  Even  civilized  man  emigrates  by 
sea  and  by  rivers,  and  has  ascended  two  thousand 
miles  above  the  mouth  of  the  Missouri,  while  interior 
tracts  in  New  York  and  Ohio  are  still  a  wilderness. 
To  the  uncivilized  man,  no  path  is  free  but  the  sea, 
the  lake,  and  the  river. 

The  American  and  the  Mongolian  races  of  men,  on 
the  two  sides  of  the  Pacific,  have  a  near  resemblance. 
Both  are  alike  strongly  and  definitely  marked  by  the 
more  capacious  palatine  fossa,  of  which  the  dimensions 
are  so  much  larger,  that  a  careful  observer  could,  out  of 
a  heap  of  skulls,  readily  separate  the  Mongolian  and 
American  from  the  Caucasian,  but  could  not  distin- 
guish them  from  each  other.  Both  have  the  orbit  of 
the  eye  quadrangular,  rather  than  oval ;  both,  espe- 
cially the  American,  have  comparatively  a  narrowness 
of  the  forehead ;  the  facial  angle  in  both,  but  especially 
in  the  American,  is  comparatively  small ;  in  both,  the 
bones  of  the  nose  are  flatter  and  broader  than  in  the 
Caucasian, — and  in  so  equal  a  degree,  and  with  aper- 
tures so  similar,  that,  on  indiscriminate  selections  of 
specimens  from  the  two,  an  observer  could  not,  from 
this  feature,  discriminate  which  of  them  belonged  to 
the  old  continent ;  both,  but  especially  the  Americans, 
are  characterized  by  a  prominence  of  the  jaws.  The 
elongated  occiput  is  common  to  the  American  and  the 
Asiatic ;  and  there  is  to  each  very  nearly  the  same  ob- 
liquity of  the  face.  Between  the  Mongolian  of  South- 


318    CONNECTION  OF  THE  RED  MAN  WITH  OTHER  RACES. 

CHAP,  ern  Asia  and  of  Northern  Asia  there  is  a  greater  differ- 

ence  than  between  the  Mongolian  Tatar  and  the  North 

American.  The  Iroquois  is  more  unlike  the  Peruvian 
than  he  is  unlike  the  wanderer  on  the  steppes  of  Sibe- 
ria. Physiology  has  not  succeeded  in  defining  the 
qualities  which  belong  to  every  well-formed  Mongo- 
lian, and  which  never  belong  to  an  indigenous  Ameri- 
can ;  still  less  can  geographical  science  draw  a  bounda- 
ry line  between  the  races.  The  Athapascas  cannot 
be  distinguished  from  Algonquin  Knisteneaux,  on  the 
one  side,  or  from  Mongolian  Esquimaux,  on  the  other. 
The  dwellers  on  the  Aleutian  Isles  melt  into  resem- 
blances with  the  inhabitants  of  each  continent;  and, 
at  points  of  remotest  distance,  the  difference  is  still  so 
inconsiderable,  that  the  daring  Ledyard,  whose  ardent 
curiosity  filled  him  with  the  passion  to  circumnavigate 
the  globe  and  cross  its  continents,  as  he  stood  in  Sibe- 
ria, with  men  of  the  Mongolian  race  before  him,  and 
compared  them  with  the  Indians  who  had  been  his  old 
play-fellows  and  school-mates  at  Dartmouth,  writes 
Led-  deliberately,  that,  "universally  and  circumstantially, 
they  resemble  the  aborigines  of  America."  On  the 


Connecticut  and  the  Oby,  he  saw  but  one  race. 

He  that  describes  the  Tungusians  of  Asia  seems  also 
UK34a>  to  describe  the  North  American.  That  the  Tschukchi 
of  North-Eastern  Asia  and  the  Esquimaux  of  America 
are  of  the  same  origin,  is  proved  by  the  affinity  of 
their  languages, — thus  establishing  a  connection  be- 
tween the  continents  previous  to  the  discovery  of 
America  by  Europeans.  The  indigenous  population 
of  America  offers  no  new  obstacle  to  faith  in  the  unity 
of  the  human  race. 


CHAPTER    XXIII. 


THE  COLONIES  OF  FRANCE  AND  ENGLAND  ENCROACH 
MORE  AND  MORE  ON  THE  RED  MEN. 


THE  Tuscaroras  changed  their  dwelling-place  before  CHAP. 

.          .  XXIIL 

the  treaty  of  Utrecht  was  completed.    Their  chiefs  had  

become  indignant  at  the  encroachments  of  the  proprie- 
taries of  Carolina,  who  had  assigned  their  lands  to  un- 
happy German  fugitives  from  the  banks  of  the  Neckar  Graffen. 
and  the  Rhine.     De  Graffenried,  who  had  undertaken  riwn.n 

lifxmson 

the  establishment  of  the  exiles,  accompanied  by  Law- 
son,  the  surveyor-general  for  the  northern  province,  in 
September  of  1711,  ascended  the  Neuse  River  in  a  gept/ 
boat,  to  discover  how  far  it  was  navigable,  and  through 
what  kind  of  country  it  flowed.  Seized  by  a  party  of 
sixty  well-armed  Indians,  both  were  compelled  to  travel 
all  night  long,  till  they  reached  a  village  of  the  Tus- 
caroras, and  were  delivered  up  to  its  chief.  Before  a 
numerous  council  of  the  principal  men  from  various 
towns  of  the  tribe,  complaint  was  made  of  the  conduct 
of  the  English  in  Carolina,  and  especially  of  the  sever- 
ity of  Lawson.  He  who,  with  his  compass  and  chain, 
had  marked  their  territory  into  lots  for  settlers,  was  re- 
proved as  "the  man  who  sold  their  land."  After  a 
discussion  of  two  days,  the  death  of  the  prisoners  was 
decreed.  The  large  fire  was  kindled ;  the  ring  was 
drawn  round  the  victims,  and  strown  with  flowers. 
On  the  morning  appointed  for  the  execution,  a  council 


320          WAR    WITH  THE   TUSCARORAS   OF   NORTH   CAROLINA 

CHAP,  assembled  anew.     Round  the  white  men  sat  the  chiefs 

XXIII 

-  ~  in  two  rows  ;  behind  them  were  three  hundred  of  the 
1711-  people,  engaged  in  festive  dances.  Yet  mercy  was 
mingled  with  severity;  and,  if  no  reprieve  was  granted 
to  Lawson,  yet  Graflfenried,  as  the  great  chieftain  of 
the  Palatines,  on  pledging  his  people  to  neutrality,  and 
promising  to  occupy  no  land  without  the  consent  of  the 
tribe,  was  suffered,  after  a  captivity  of  five  weeks,  to 
return  through  the  woods  on  foot.  He  returned  to 
fcfcpt  desolated  settlements.  On  the  twenty-second  of  Sep- 
tcHiber,  small  bands  of  the  Tuscaroras  and  Corees, 
acting  in  concert,  approached  the  scattered  cabins 


wood,  along  the  Roanoke  and  Pamlico  Sound.  As  night 
came  on,  a  whoop  from  a  warrior  called  his  fierce  asso- 
ciates from  the  woods,  to  commence  the  indiscriminate 
carnage.  The  wretched  Palatines,  now  tenants  of  the 
wilderness,  encountered  a  foe  more  savage  than  Lou- 
vois  and  the  hated  Louis  XIV.  At  Bath,  the  Hugue- 
not refugees,  and  the  planters  in  their  neighborhood, 
were  struck  down  by  aid  of  the  glare  from  the  burning 
of  their  own  cabins  ;  and,  with  a  lighted  pine  knot  in 
one  hand  and  the  tomahawk  in  the  other,  the  hunters 
after  men  pursued  their  game  through  the  forests.  In 
the  three  following  days,  they  scoured  the  country  on 
the  Albemarle  Sound,  and  did  not  desist  from  slaughter 
till  they  were  disabled  by  fatigue. 

Not  all  the  Tuscaroras  had  joined  in  the  conspiracy  ; 

w™1*  Spotswood  sought  immediately  to  renew  with  them 
an  alliance;  but,  as  the  burgesses  of  Virginia  engaged 
with  him  in  a  contest  of  power,  no  effectual  aid  came 
from  the  Old  Dominion.  But  the  assembly  of  South 
iV  Carolina  promptly  voted  relief;  and,  defying  the  hard- 
ships of  a  long  march  through  the  wilderness,  Barn- 
well,  with  Cherokees,  Creeks,  Catawbas,  and  Yamas- 


WAR  WITH  THE   TUSCARORAS   OF  NORTH   CAROLINA  321 

sees,  as  allies,  led  a  small  detachment  of  militia  to  the  CHAP. 

banks  of  Neuse  River.     There,  in  the  upper  part  of  ~ 

Craven  county,  the  Indians  were  intrenched  in  a  rude  1712 
fort.  With  the  aid  of  a  few  soldiers  of  North  Caroli- 
na, the  fort  was  besieged ;  but  the  province  was  rent 
by  intestine  divisions.  Even  imminent  danger  had 
not  roused  its  inhabitants  to  harmonious  action ;  they 
retained  their  hatred  for  the  rule  of  the  proprietaries ; 
and,  surrounded  by  difficulties,  Barnwell  could  only 
negotiate  with  the  Indians  a  treaty  of  peace. 

The  troops  of  South  Carolina,  on  their  return,  them- 
selves violated  the  treaty,  enslaving  inhabitants  of  vil-  JSJ- 
lages  which  should  have  been  safe  under  its  guaranties ; 
and  the  massacres  on  Neuse  River  were  renewed. 
The  province  was  impoverished,  the  people  dissatis- 
fied with  their  government;  in  autumn,  the  yellow 
fever  raged  under  its  most. malignant  form;  and  the  Sept 
country  south  of  Pamlico  Sound  seemed  destined  to 
become  once  more  a  wilderness.  But  Spotswood  suc- 
ceeded in  dividing  the  Tuscaroras.  Large  reenforce- 
ments  of  Indians  from  South  Carolina  arrived,  with  a 
few  white  men,  under  James  Moore ;  the  enemy  were 
pursued  to  their  fort  (within  the  limits  of  the  present 
Greene  county)  on  the  Neuse ;  and,  on  its  surrender, 
eight  hundred  became  captives.  The  legislature  of 
North  Carolina,  assembling  in  May,  under  a  new  gov- 
ernor, issued  its  first  bills  of  credit,  to  the  amount  of 
eight  thousand  pounds;  "the  very  refractory"  among 
the  people  grew  zealous  to  supply  the  forces  with  pro- 
visions ;  the  enemy  was  chased  across  the  lakes  and 
swamps  of  Hyde  county ;  the  woods  were  patrolled  by 
red  allies,  who  hunted  for  prisoners  to  be  sold  as 
slaves,  or  took  scalps  for  a  reward.  At  last,  the  hos-  June, 
tile  part  of  the  Tuscaroras  abandoned  their  old  hunting- 
VOL.  in.  41 


322  THE    HOUSE   OF   HANOVER   BECOMES   SOVEREIGN. 

CHAP,  grounds,  and,  migrating  to  the  vicinity  of  the  Oneida 

~ Lake,  were  welcomed  by  their  kindred  of  the  Iroquois 

as  the  sixth  nation  of  their  confederacy.  Their  hum- 
1715  bled  allies  were  established  as  a  single  settlement  in 
the  precincts  of  Hyde.  Thus  the  power  of  the  na- 
tives of  North  Carolina  was  broken,  and  its  interior 
forests  became  safe  places  of  resort  to  the  emigrant 
1714  Meantime,  the  house  of  Hanover  had  ascended  the 
ug  English  throne — an  event  doubly  grateful  to  the  colo- 
nies. The  contest  of  parties  is  the  struggle,  not  be- 
tween persons,  but  between  ideas;  and  the  abiding 
sympathy  of  nations  is  never  won  but  by  an  appeal  to 
the  controlling  principles  of  the  age.  George  I.  had 
imprisoned  his  wife ;  had,  from  jealousy,  caused  a 
young  man  to  be  assassinated  ;  had  had  frequent  and 
angry  quarrels  with  his  son ;  and  now,  being  fifty- 
three  years  old,  attended  by  two  women  of  the  Hano- 
verian aristocracy,  who  were  proud  of  being  known  as 
his  mistresses,  he  crossed  the  sea  to  become  the  sove- 
reign of  a  country  of  which  he  understood  neither  the 
institutions,  the  manners,  nor  the  language.  Intrust- 
ing the  administration  to  the  whigs,  he  avowed  his 
purpose  of  limiting  his  favor  to  them,  as  though  he 
were  himself  a  member  of  their  party;  and,  in  return, 
by  a  complaisant  ministry,  places  in  the  highest  ranks 
of  the  English  aristocracy  were  secured  to  his  mis- 
tresses, whose  number  he,  in  his  sixty-seventh  year, 
just  before  his  death,  was  designing  to  enlarge.  And 
yet,  throughout  English  America,  even  the  clergy  her- 
alded the  elevation  of  George  I.  as  an  omen  of  happi- 
oJIScJi  ness >  an^  fr°m  the  pulpit  in  Boston  it  was  announced 
Vast8  of  its  people  that,  in  the  whole  land,  "not  a  dog  can 
™> '  wag  his  tongue  to  charge  them  with  disloyalty."  To 
the  children  of  the  Puritans,  the  accession  of  the  house 


DEATH  OF  LOUIS  XIV.  REGENCY  OF  ORLEANS.       323 

of  Hanover  was  the  triumph  of  Protestantism,  and  the  CHAP 
guaranty  of  Protestant  liberties.  ~^ — 

The  advancement  of  the  new  dynasty  was,  more- 
over, a  pledge  of  a  pacific  policy ;  and  this  pledge  was 
redeemed.  Louis  XIV.  drew  near  his  end :  he  had  out-  1J15 

A  "ft. 

lived  his  children  and  every  grandchild,  except  the  new 
king  of  Spain, — his  own  glory, — the  gratitude  of  those 
whom  he  had  advanced.  "My  child,"  said  he,  as  he 
gave  a  farewell  blessing  to  his  great-grandson,  the  boy 
of  five  years  old,  who  was  to  be  his  successor,  "  you 
will  be  a  great  king ;  do  not  imitate  me  in  my  passion 
for  war ;  seek  peace  with  your  neighbors,  and  strive  to 
be,  what  I  have  failed  to  be,  a  solace  to  your  people." 
'Sad  task,"  madame  de  Maintenon  had  written,  "to 
amuse  a  man  who  is  past  being  amused;"  and,  quit- 
ting his  bedside,  she  left  him,  after  a  reign  of  seventy- 
two  years,  to  die  alone.  He  had  sought  to  extend  his  Sept 
power  beyond  his  life  by  establishing  a  council  of  regen- 
cy ;  but  the  will  was  cancelled  by  the  parliament,  and 
his  nephew,  the  brave,  generous,  but  abandoned  Philip 
of  Orleans,  became  absolute  regent.  In  the  event  of 
the  early  death  of  Louis  XV.,  who  should  inherit  the 
throne  of  France  ?  By  the  treaty  of  Utrecht,  Philip 
of  Anjou,  accepting  the  crown  of  Spain,  renounced  the 
right  of  succession  to  that  of  France.  If  the  treaty 
were  maintained,  Philip  of  Orleans  was  heir-apparent ; 
if  legitimacy  could  sustain  the  necessary  succession  of 
the  nearest  prince,  the  renunciation  of  the  king  of 
Spain  was  invalid,  and  the  integrity  of  his  right  unim- 
paired. Thus  the  personal  interest  of  the  absolute 
regent  in  France  was  opposed  to  the  rigid  doctrine  of 
legitimacy,  and  sought  an  alliance  with  England ; 
while  the  king  of  Spain,  under  the  guidance  of  Albe- 
roni,  WHS  moved  not  less  by  Hereditary  attachment  to 


324    CONTINUED  PEACE  BETWEEN  FRANCE  AND  ENGLAND. 

CHAP,  legitimacy  than  by  personal  ambition  to  disregard  the 

provisions  of  the  treaty,  and  favor  alike  the  pretensions 

of  the  Stuarts  to  the  British  throne  and  of  himself  to 
the  succession  in  France.  The  French  minister  Torcy 
had  avowed  his  faith  that  God  has  established  the  or- 
der of  succession,  which  man  cannot  change ;  and  the 
power  of  the  gifted  son  of  Colbert  yielded  to  that  of 
the  wily,  degenerate,  avaricious  Du  Bois.  By  the  in- 
fluence of  Protestant  England,  the  recklessly  immoral 
Du  Bois,  thrice  infamous,  as  the  corrupt er  of  his  pupil, 
as  the  licentious  priest  of  a  spiritual  religion,  and  as  a 
statesman  in  the  pay  of  a  foreign  country,  became  car- 
dinal, the  successor  of  Fenelon  in  an  archbishopric,  and 
prime  minister  of  France.  Under  such  auspices  was 
a  happy  peace  secured  to  the  colonies  of  rival  nations. 
1727.  Neither  the  death  of  George  I.  nor  the  coming  of  age 
of  Louis  XV.  changed  the  dispositions  of  the  govern- 
ments. '  The  character  of  Walpole  was  a  pledge  of 
moderation.  Ignorant  of  theories,  not  familiar  with 
the  history  or  politics  of  foreign  nations,  he  was  pro- 
foundly versed  in  the  maxims  of  worldly  wisdom. 
Never  boasting  of  his  philosophy,  he  possessed  that 
tranquillity  which  could  lose  office  without  excess 
of  complaint,  and  meet  death  without  fear.  Desti- 
tute of  fortune  or  alliances,  he  rose  gradually  to  power, 
and  exercised  it  temperately.  Hope  shed  its  light 
always  on  his  path;  he  never  distrusted  his  policy 
or  himself.  It  was  his  weakness  that  he  could  endure 
no  rival,  and  sought  as  friends  men  who  were  his  infe- 
riors ;  that  his  pleasures  degenerated  into  coarse  licen- 
tiousness ;  and  that  he  was  not  indifferent  to  the  vanity 
of  magnificence.  In  the  employment  of  means,  he 
"plunged  to  the  elbows  in  corruption,"  and  had  the 
daring  to  do  wrong  without  compunction ;  and  yet  his 


CHARACTER   OF   WALPOLE :    OF   FLEURY.  325 

policy  rested  mainly  for  its  support  on  great  views,  CHAP 
which  were  in  harmony  with  his  age,  fostering  the  — ^~ 
commerce  and  diminishing  the  debt  of  England. 
Never  palliating  his  conduct,  and  caring  only  for  ma- 
jorities,— trading  for  numbers,  and  not  for  talents  or 
for  appearances, — he  followed  honesty  more  than  he 
professed  to  do  it ;  and,  if  he  never  resisted  his  party 
from  motives  of  moral  right ;  if  he  had  the  weakness, 
at  last,  to  yield  the  cardinal  point  of  his  policy,  rather 
than  leave  the  cabinet ;  he,  at  least,  never  parted  from 
his  friends  to  serve  himself.  The  house  of  commons 
was  his  avenue  to  power;  and  his  thoughts  were 
chiefly  engrossed  by  intrigues  for  majorities.  Of  the 
American  colonies  he  knew  little ;  but  they  profited  by 
the  character  of  a  statesman  who  ever  shunned  meas- 
ures that  might  lead  to  an  insurrection, — who  rejected 
every  system  of  revenue  that  required  the  sabre  and 
the  bayonet  to  enforce  it. 

In  his  honorable  policy,  Walpole  was  favored  by  the 
natural  moderation  of  Fleury,  who,  at  the  age  of  sev- 
enty-three, was  called  by  Louis  XV.  to  direct  the 
affairs  of  France.  The  wise  cardinal  had  a  discrim- 
inating mind,  and  an  equitable  candor,  which  shunned 
intrigue  and  forbade  distrust.  The  preservation  of 
peace  was  his  rule  of  administration ;  and  he  was  the 
cnosen  mediator  between  conflicting  sovereigns.  His 
clear  perceptions  anticipated  impending  revolutions  ; 
but  he  hushed  the  storm  till  his  judgment  sunk  under 
the  infirmities  of  fourscore.  Happy  period  for  the  col- 
onies !  Let  England  judge  as  she  will  of  the  minister 
to  whom  she  owes  septennial  parliaments,  America 
blesses  the  memory  of  Walpole  and  of  Fleury  as  of 
statesmen  who  preferred  commerce  to  conquest,  and 
desired  no  higher  glory  than  that  of  guardians  of 


326  WAR    OF   SOUTH    CAROLINA   WITH   THE    YAMASSEES. 

CHAP  peace.     For  a  quarter  of  a  century,  if  less  forbear- 

^LtfLiUl* 

-  ance  was  shown  towards  Spain,  the  controversies  of 
Great  Britain  and  France  respecting  colonial  bounda- 
ries, though  they  might  lead  to  collisions,  could  not 
occasion  a  rupture. 

The  prospect  of  continued  peace  occasioned  a  rapid 
extension  of  the  Indian  traffic  of  South  Carolina.  Fa- 
vored by  the  mild  climate,  its  traders  had  their  store- 
houses  among  the  Chickasas  and  near  the  Natchez, 
and  by  intimidation,  rather  than  by  good  will,  gained 
admission  even  into  villages  of  the  Choctas.  Still 
more  intimate  were  their  commercial  relations  with 
the  branches  of  the  Muskhogees  in  the  immediate 

o 

vicinity  of  the  province,  especially  with  the  Yamas- 
sees,  who,  from  impatience  at  the   attempts  at  their 
uaw!»'  conversion    to    Christianity,    had    deserted    their    old 
abodes  in  Florida,  and  planted  themselves  from  Port 
Royal  Island  along  the  north-east  bank  of  the  Savan- 
nah River.     The  tribes  of  Carolina  had  been  regarded 
skJ  as  "a  tame  and  peaceable  people;"  they  were  very 
i,  largely  in  debt  for  the  advances  which  had  been  made 
,  LO  them;  and  "the  traders  began  to  be  hard  upon  them, 
Sls.ki8.  because  they  would  be  paid."     The  influence  of  Bien- 
carVoii's  ville,  of  Louisiana,   prevailed  with  the    Choctas,  and 

Coll.  ii.  '  t  ' 

tne  English  were  driven  from  their  villages.  The 
whole  Indian  world  from  Mobile  River  to  Cape  Fear 
Was  in  commotion.  The  Yamassees  renewed  friendly 
relations  with  the  Spaniards  at  St.  Augustine  ;  they 
won  the  alliance  of  the  Catawbas  and  the  Cherokces  ; 
and  their  messenger  with  "the  bloody  stick"  threaded 
his  way  through  flowering  groves  to  the  new  towns  of 
the  Appalachian  emigrants  on  the  Savannah,  to  the 
ancient  villages  of  the  Uchees,  and  bounded  across  the 
rivers  along  which  the  various  tribes  of  the  Muskho- 


WAR  OF   SOUTH    CAROLINA   WITH    THE  YAMASSEES.  327 

gees  had  their  dwellings ;  and  they  delayed  their  CHAP 
rising  till  the  deliberations  of  the  grand  council  of  the  ~~^- 
Creeks  should  be  finished,  and  the  emblem  of  war  ^™l 
be  returned. 

In  passion-week  of  1715,  the  traders  at  Pocotaligo 
observed  the  madness  of  revenge  kindling  among  the 
Yamassees.  On  Thursday  night,  unaware  of  immedi- 
ate danger,  Nairne,  the  English  agent,  sent  with  pro- 
posals of  peace,  slept  in  the  round  house,  with  the  civil 
chiefs  and  the  war-captains.  On  the  morning  of  Good  1715 
Friday,  the  indiscriminate  massacre  of  the  English  be-  15. 
gan.  One  boy  escaped  into  the  forest,  and,  after  wan- 
dering for  nine  days,  reached  a  garrison.  Seaman 
Burroughs,  a  strong  man  and  swift  runner,  broke 
through  the  ranks  of  the  Indian  band ;  and,  though 
hotly  pursued,  and  twice  wounded,  by  running  ten 
miles,  and  swimming  one,  he  reached  Port  Royal,  and 
alarmed  the  town.  Its  inhabitants,  some  in  canoes, 
and  some  on  board  a  ship,  which  chanced  to  be  in  the 
harbor,  fled  to  Charleston.  The  numerous  bands  of 
the  enemy,  hiding  by  day  in  the  swamps,  and  by  night 
attacking  the  scattered  settlements,  drove  the  planters 
towards  the  capital.  The  Yamassees  and  their  con- 
federates advanced  even  as  far  as  Stono,  where  they 
halted,  that  their  prisoners — planters,  with  their  wives 
and  little  ones — might  be  tormented  and  sacrificed  at 
leisure.  On  the  north,  a  troop  of  horse,  insnared  by 
a  false  guide  in  an  ambush  among  large  trees,  thickly 
strown  by  a  late  hurricane,  lost  its  commander,  and 
retreated.  The  insurgent  Indians  carried  their  rav- 
ages even  to  the  parish  of  Goose  Creek ;  Charleston 
itself  was  in  peril ;  the  colony  seemed  near  its  ruin. 

But  the  impulse  of  savage  passion  could  not  resist 
the  deliberate  courage  of  civilized  man.     The  spirit  of 


328        POPULAR  REVOLUTION  IN  SOUTH  CAROLINA. 

CHAP,  the  colony  was  aroused.     On  the  north,  the  insulated 

band  of  invaders  received  a  check,  and  vanished  into 

1715'  the  forests;  on  the  south,  Charles  Craven,  the  governor 
of  the  province,  himself  promptly  led  the  forces  of  Col- 
leton  district  to  the  desperate  conflict  with  the  confed- 
erated warriors  on  the  banks  of  the  Salke-hachie.  The 
April,  battle  was  bloody  and  often  renewed.  The  ah  re- 
sounded with  savage  yells ;  arrows,  as  well  as  bullets, 
were  discharged,  with  fatal  aim,  from  behind  trees  and 
coppices.  At  last,  the  savages  gave  way,  and  were  pur- 
sued beyond  the  present  limits  of  Carolina.  The  Ya- 
massees  retired  into  Florida,  and  at  St.  Augustine  were 
welcomed  with  peals  from  the  bells  and  a  salute  of 
guns,  as  though  allies  and  friends  had  returned  from 
victory.  The  Uchees  left  their  old  settlements  below 
Broad  River,  and  the  Appalachians  their  new  cabins 
near  the  Savannah,  and  retired  towards  Flint  River. 
When  Craven  returned  to  Charleston,  he  was  greeted 
with  the  applause  which  his  alacrity,  courage,  and  con- 
duct, had  merited.  The  colony  had  lost  about  four 
hundred  of  its  inhabitants. 

The  war  with 'the  Yamassees  was  followed  by  a  do- 
mestic revolution  in  Carolina.  Its  soil  had  been  de- 
fended by  its  own  people,  and  they  resolved,  under 
the  sovereignty  of  the  English  monarch,  to  govern 
themselves.  Scalping  parties  of  Yamassees,  from 
their  places  of  refuge  in  Florida,  continued  to  hover 
on  the  frontiers  of  a  territory  which  the  Spaniards  still 
claimed  as  their  own.  The  proprietaries  took  no  effi- 
cient measures  for  protecting  their  colony.  Instead 
of  inviting  settlers,  they  monopolized  the  lands  which 
they  had  not  contributed  to  defend.  The  measures 
adopted  for  the  payment  of  the  colonial  debts  were 
negatived,  in  part  because  they  imposed  a  duty  of  ten 


POPULAR   REVOLUTION    IN    SOUTH   CAROLINA.  329 

pounds  on  the  introduction  of  every  negro  from  abroad.  CHAP 
The  polls  for  the  election  of  representatives  had  hith-  —  >^ 
erto  been  held  for  the  whole  province  at  Charleston 
alone  ;  the  provincial  legislature  permitted  the  votes  to 
be  given  in  each  parish.  But  because  the  reform  in- 
creased popular  power,  this  also  was  negatived.  Some 
of  the  members  of  the  proprietary  council  had,  by  long 
residence,  become  attached  to  the  soil  and  the  liberties 
of  their  new  country;  and  they  were  supplanted,  or 
their  influence  destroyed,  by  an  abrupt  increase  of  the 
number  of  their  associates.  In  consequence,  at  the 
next  election  of  assembly,  though  it  was  chosen  at 
Charleston,  the  agents  of  the  proprietaries  could  not 
succeed  in  procuring  the  return  of  any  one  whom  they 
desired.  The  members  elect,  at  private  meetings, 
"resolved  to  have  no  more  to  do  with  the  proprie- 
tors;" and  the  people  of  the  province  entered  "into 
an  association  to  stand  by  their  rights  and  privileges." 
It  was  remembered  that  the  lords  of  trade  had  formerly 
declared  the  charter  forfeit  ;  that  the  house  of  peers 
had  favored  its  prosecution  ;  and,  as  the  known  hostil-  1719 
ity  of  Spain  threatened  an  invasion,  the  assembly  re- 
solved  "to  have  no  regard  to  the  officers  of  the  propri- 
etaries or  to  their  administration,"  and  begged  Robert 
Johnson,  the  governor,  "to  hold  the  reins  of  govern- 
ment for  the  king."  When  Johnson,  remaining  true  to 
his  employers,  firmly  rejected  their  offer,  they,  with 
Arthur  Middleton  for  their  president,  voted  themselves 
"  a  convention  delegated  by  the  people  ;  "  and,  resolved 
"on  having  a  governor  of  their  own  choosing,"  they 
elected  the  brave  James  Moore,  a  favorite  with  the 
people,  "  whom  all  .the  country  had  allowed  to  be  the 
fittest  person  "  for  undertaking  its  defence.  The  mili- 
tia  of  Charleston  was  to  be  reviewed  on  the  twenty-  1.414! 
VOL.  in.  4<2 


3.30       SURRENDER  OF  THE  CHARTER  FOR  CAROLINA 

CHAP,  first  of 'December ;  and  that  day  was  selected  for  pro- 

claiming  the  new   chief  magistrate.     To   Parris,  the 

1719  commanding  officer,  Johnson  issued  particular  orders 
to  delay  the  muster,  nor  suffer  a  drum  to  be  beat  in 
the  town.  But  the  people  of  Carolina  had,  by  the 
power  of  public  opinion,  renounced  the  government  of 
the  proprietaries ;  and,  on  the  appointed  day,  with  col- 
ors flying  at  the  forts  and  on  all  the  ships  in  the  harbor, 
the  militia,  which  was  but  the  people  in  arms,  drew  up 
in  the  public  square.  It  would  be  tedious  to  relate 
minutely  by  what  menaces,  what  entreaties,  what  ar- 
guments, Johnson  struggled  to  resist  the  insurrection. 
In  the  king's  name,  he  commanded  Parris  to  disperse 
his  men ;  and  Parris  answered,  "  I  obey  the  conven- 
tion." "The  revolutioners  had  their  governor,  coun- 
cil, and  convention,  and  all  of  their  own  free  elec- 
tion." Peacefully,  and  without  bloodshed,  palatines, 
landgraves,  and  caciques,  were  dismissed  from  Caroli- 
na, where  they  had  become  so  little  connected  with 
the  vital  interests  of  the  state,  that  history  with  diffi- 
culty preserves  them  from  oblivion. 

1730  The  agent  from  Carolina  obtained  in  England  a 
ready  hearing  from  the  lords  of  the  regency.  The 
proprietors  were  esteemed  to  have  forfeited  their 
charter ;  measures  were  taken  for  its  abrogation ;  and, 
in  the  mean  time,  Francis  Nicholson — an  adept  in  co- 
lonial governments,  trained  by  experience  in  New 
York,  in  Virginia,  in  Maryland ;  brave,  and  not  penu- 
rious, but  narrow  and  irascible;  of  loose  morality,  yet  a 
fervent  supporter  of  the  church — received  a  royal  com- 
mission as  provisional  governor  of  the  province.  The 
bold  act  of  the  people  of  Carolina,  which  in  England 
was  respected  as  an  evidence  of  loyalty,  was  remem- 
bered in  America  as  an  example  for  posterity.  The 


SURRENDER  OF  THE  CHARTER  FOR  CAROLINA.       331 

introduction    of  the   direct    regal   supremacy   was    a  CHAP. 

pledge  of  more  than  security  to  the  southern  frontier :  

no  lines  were  either  run  or  proposed ;  and  the  neglect 
was  an  omen  that  the  limits  of  the  stronger  nation 
would  be  advanced  by  encroachments  or  conquest. 

The  first  act  of  Nicholson  confirmed  peace  with  1721 
the  natives.  On  the  borders  of  the  territory  of  the 
peaceful  Cherokees,  he  was  met,  in  congress,  by  the 
chiefs  of  thirty-seven  different  villages.  They  smoked 
with  him  the  pipe  of  peace,  and  marked  the  boundaries 
between  "  the  beloved  nation  "  and  the  colonists ;  and 
they  returned  to  their  happy  homes  in  the  mountain 
vales  pleased  with  their  generous  brother  and  new  ally. 
A  treaty  of  commerce  and  peace  was  also  concluded 
with  the  Creeks,  whose  hunting-grounds  it  was  solemn- 
ly agreed  should  extend  to  the  Savannah.  Yet  the  am- 
bition of  England  was  not  bounded  by  that  river;  and 
on  the  forks  of  the  Alatamaha,  in  defiance  of  remon- 
strances from  Spain  and  from  Florida,  a  fort  was  kept 
by  a  small  English  garrison.' 

The  controversy  was  not  adjusted  when,  in  Septem- 
ber, 1729,  under  the  sanction  of  an  act  of  parliament,  1729 
and  for  the  sum  of  twenty-two  thousand  five  hundred 
pounds,  seven  eighths  of  the  proprietaries  sold  to  the 
crown  their  territory,  the  jurisdiction  over  it,  and  their 
arrears  of  quitrents.  Lord  Carteret  alone,  joining  in 
the  surrender  of  the  government,  reserved  an  eighth 
share  in  the  soil.  This  is  the  period  when  a  royal 
governor  was  first  known  in  North  Carolina.  Its  se- 
cluded hamlets  had  not  imitated  the  popular  revolution 
of  the  southern  province. 

So  soon  as  the  royal  government  was  ful.y  con- 
firmed, it  attempted,  by  treaties  of  union,  to  convert 
the  Indians  on  the  borders  of  Carolina  into  allies  or 


332  TREATY   OF   ENGLAND    WITH    THE    CHEROKEES. 

CHAP,  subjects;  and,  early  in  1730,  Sir  Alexander  Gumming, 

a  special  envoy,  guided  by  Indian  traders  to  Keowee, 

summoned  a  general  assembly  of  the  chiefs  of  the  Cher- 
okees  to  meet  at  Nequassee,  in  the  valley  of  the  Ten- 
nessee. They  came  together  in  the  month  of  April,  and 
were  told  that  King  George  was  their  sovereign.  When 
they  offered  a  chaplet,  four  scalps  of  their  enemies, 
and  five  eagles'  tails,  as  the  records  of  the  treaty,  and 
the  pledge  of  their  fidelity,  it  was  proposed  to  them  to 
send  deputies  to  England;  and  English  writers  inter- 
preted their  assent  as  an  act  of  homage  to  the  British 
monarch.  In  England,  a  treaty  of  alliance,  offensive 
and  defensive,  was  drawn  up  by  the  English,  and 
signed  by  the  name  and  seal  of  one  party,  by  the 
emblems  and  marks  of  the  other.  No  white  men,  ex- 
cept the  English,  might  build  cabins  or  plant  corn  up- 
on the  wide  lands  of  the  Cherokees.  Thus  a  nation 
rose  up  as  a  barrier  against  the  French.  The  seven 
envoys  from  the  mountains  of  Tennessee,  already  be- 
wildered by  astonishment  at  the  vastness  of  London, 
and  the  splendor  and  discipline  of  the  English  army, 
were  presented  at  court ;  and  when  the  English  king 
claimed  their  land  and  all  the  country  about  them  as 
his  property,  surprise  and  inadvertence  extorted  from 
one  of  their  war-chieftains  the  irrevocable  answer, 
1730.  "To-eu-hah," — it  is  "a  most  certain  truth;"  and  the 
delivery  of  eagles'  feathers  confirmed  his  words.  The 
covenant  promised  that  love  should  flow  forever  like 
the  rivers,  that  peace  should  endure  like  the  mountains; 
and  it  was  faithfully  kept,  at  least  for  one  generation. 
Of  the  maritime  powers  of  Europe,  it  was  Spain 
which  chiefly  took  umbrage  at  the  progress  of  the 
English  settlements  am}  the  English  alliances  at  the 
south.  The  questions  at  issue  with  France  were  at- 


BOUNDARIES  ON  THE  NORTH-EAST.  333 

tended  with  greater  difficulty.  The  treaty  of  Utrecht  CHAP. 
surrendered  to  England  Acadia  and  Nova  Scotia,  — ^ 
"with  its  ancient  boundaries."  Disputes  were  to  arise 
respecting  them ;  but  even  the  eastern  frontier  of  the 
province  of  Massachusetts  was  not  vindicated  without 
a  contest.  To  the  country  between  the  Kennebec 
and  the  St.  Croix  a  new  claimant  appeared  in  the 
Abenakis  themselves.  In  1716,  the  general  court  ex- 
tended its  jurisdiction  to  the  utmost  bounds  of  the 
province ;  the  enterprise  of  the  fishermen  and  the 
traders  of  New  England,  whom,  at  first,  the  conve- 
nience of  commerce  made  welcome,  not  only  revived 
the  villages  that  had  been  desolated  during  the  war, 
but,  on  the  eastern  bank  of  the  Kennebec,  laid  the 
foundation  of  new  settlements,  and  protected  them 
by  forts. 

The  red  men  became  alarmed.  Away  went  their  1717 
chiefs  across  the  forests  to  Quebec,  to  ask  if  France 
had  indeed  surrendered  the  country,  of  which  they 
themselves  were  the  rightful  lords ;  and  as  Vaudreuil 
answered,  that  the  treaty  of  which  the  English  spoke 
made  no  mention  of  their  country,  their  chief  resisted 
the  claim  of  the  government  of  Massachusetts.  "I 
have  my  land,"  said  he,  "where  the  Great  Spirit  has 
placed  me ;  and  while  there  remains  one  child  of  my 
tribe,  I  shall  fight  to  preserve  it."  France  could  not 
maintain  its  influence  by  an  open  alliance,  but  its  mis- 
sionaries guided  their  converts.  At  Norridgewock,  on 
the  banks  of  the  Kennebec,  the  venerable  Sebastian 
Rasles,  for  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century  the  com- 
panion and  instructor  of  savages,  had  gathered  a 
flourishing  village  round  a  church  which,  rising  in 
the  desert,  made  some  pretensions  to  magnificence. 
Severely  ascetic, — using  no  wine;  and  little  food  ex- 


334  BOUNDS   OF    ENGLISH   AND   FRENCH    COLONIES. 

CHAP,  cept  pounded  maize, — a  rigorous  observer  of  the  days 

— ~  of  Lent, — he  built  his  own  cabin,  tilled  his  own  gar- 
den, drew  for  himself  wood  and  water,  prepared  his 
own  hominy,  and,  distributing  all  that  he  received, 
gave  an  example  of  religious  poverty.  And  yet  he 
was  laborious  in  garnishing  his  forest  sanctuary,  be- 
lieving the  faith  of  the  savage  must  be  quickened  by 

^"i43d  stl'ikmg  appeals  to  the  senses.  Himself  a  painter,  he 
adorned  the  humble  walls  of  his  church  with  pictures. 
There  he  gave  instruction  almost  daily.  Following  his 
pupils  to  their  wigwams,  he  tempered  the  spirit  of  de- 
votion with  familiar  conversation  and  innocent  gayety, 
winning  the  mastery  over  their  souls  by  his  powers  of 
persuasion.  He  had  trained  a  little  band  of  forty 
young  savages,  arrayed  in  cassock  and  surplice,  to 
assist  in  the  service  and  chant  the  hymns  of  the 
church ;  and  their  public  processions  attracted  a  great 
concourse  of  red  men.  Two  chapels  were  built  near 
the  village, — one  dedicated  to  the  Virgin,  and  adorned 
with  her  statue  in  relief, — another  to  the  guardian  an- 
gel ;  and  before  them  the  hunter  muttered  his  prayers, 
on  his  way  to  the  river  or  the  woods.  When  the  tribe 
descended  to  the  sea-side,  in  the  season  of  wild  fowl, 
they  were  followed  by  Rasles ;  and  on  some  islet  a 
little  chapel  of  bark  was  quickly  consecrated. 

1717  The  government  of  Massachusetts  attempted,  in 
turn,  to  establish  a  mission;  and  its  minister  made  a 
mocking  of  purgatory  and  the  invocation  of  saints,  of 
the  cross  and  the  rosary.  "My  Christians,"  retorted 
Rasles,  "believe  the  truths  of  the  Catholic  faith,  but 
are  not  skilful  disputants;"  and  he  himself  prepared 
a  defence  of  the  Roman  church.  Thus  Calvin  and 
Loyola  met  in  the  woods  of  Maine.  But  the  Protes- 
tant minister,  unable  to  compete  with  the  Jesuit  for 


BOUNDARIES   ON    THE    NORTH-EAST.  335 


ine   affections   of  thu    Indians,   returned    to   Boston, 
while  "the  friar  remained,  the  incendiary  of  mischief." 

Several  chiefs  had,  by  stratagem,  been  seized  by  1721 
the  New  England  government,  and  were  detained  as    ™J 
hostages.     For  their  ^liberty  a  stipulated  ransom  had    JTi' 
been  paid  ;  and  still  they  were  not  free.     The  Abena     July. 
kis  then  demanded  that  their  territory  should  be  evacu- 
ated, and  the  imprisoned  warriors  delivered  up,  or  re- 
prisals would  follow.      Instead  of  negotiating,  the  Eng- 
lish seized  the  young  baron  de  St.  Castin,  who,  being 
a  half-breed,  at  once  held  a  French  commission  and 
was  an  Indian  war-chief;  and,  after  vainly  soliciting  the 
savages  to  surrender  Rasles,  in  midwinter  Westbrooke 
led  a  strong  force  to  Norridgewock  to  take  him  by  sur-  *  J^2 
prise.     The  warriors  were  absent  in  the  chase,  yet  the 
Jesuit  had  sufficient  warning  to  escape,  with  the  old 
men  and  the  infirm,  into  the  forest  ;  and  the  invaders 
gained  nothing  but  his  papers.     These  were  impor- 
tant ;  for  the  correspondence  with  Vaudreuil  proved  a 
latent  hope  of  establishing  the  power  of  France  on  the 
Atlantic.     There  was  found,  moreover,  a  vocabulary 
of  the   Abenaki  language,  which  the   missionary  had 
compiled,  and  which  has  been  preserved  to  this  day. 

These  insults  induced  the  Indians  to  hope  for  no  1722 
peace  but  by  inspiring  terror.  On  returning  from  the 
chase,  after  planting  their  grounds,  they  resolved  to 
destroy  the  English  settlements  on  the  Kennebec. 
They  sent  deputies  to  carry  the  hatchet  and  chant  the 
war-song  among  the  Hurons  of  Quebec,  and  in  every 
village  of  the  Abenakis.  The  war-chiefs  met  at  Nor- 
ridgewock, and  the  work  of  destruction  began  by  the 
burning  of  Brunswick. 

The  clear  judgment  of  Rasles  perceived  the  issue. 
The  forts  of  the  English  could  not  be  taken  by  the 


"336  BOUNDS    OF  ENGLISH  AND  FRENCH   COLONIES 

CHAP  feeble    means   of  the   natives  :    "  unless    the   French 

/L-A.1  1  1. 

—  —  should  join  with  the  Indians,"  he  reported  the  land  as 

1722.  |ost4     Many  of  his  red  people  retired  to  Canada:  he 
bid  them  go  ;   but  to  their  earnest  solicitations  that  he 
would  share  their  flight,  the  age4  man,  foreseeing  the 
impending  ruin  of  Norridgewock,  replied,  "I  count  not 
mj  life  dear  unto  myself,  so  I  may  finish  with  joy  the 
ministry  which  I  have  received.  "„ 

July.  The  government  of  Massachusetts,  by  resolution, 
declared  the  eastern  Indians  to  be  traitors  and  robbers  ; 
and,  while  troops  were  raised  for  the  war,  it  also  stim- 
ulated the  activity  of  private  parties  by  offering  for 
each  Indian  scalp  at  first  a  bounty  of  fifteen  pounds, 
and  afterwards  of  a  hundred. 

1723.  The  expedition  to  Penobscot  was  under  public  aus- 
pices.     After   five   days'  march   through   the    woods, 


amson 


Westbrooke,  with  his  company,  came  upon  the  Indian 
settlement,  that  was  probably  above  Bangor,  at  Old 
Town.  He  found  a  fort,  seventy  yards  long,  and  fifty 
ssf  m  breadth,  well  protected  by  stockades,  fourteen  feet 
high,  enclosing  twenty-three  houses  regularly  built. 
On  the  south  side,  near  at  hand,  was  the  chapel,  sixty 
feet  long,  and  thirty  wide,  well  and  handsomely  fur- 
nished within  and  without;  and  south  of  this  stood 
the  "friar's  dwelling-house."  The  invaders  arrived 
there  on  the  ninth  'of  March,  at  six  in  the  evening. 
That  night  they  set  fire  to  the  village,  and  by  sunrise 
next  morning  every  building  was  in  ashes. 

Twice  it  was  attempted  in  vain  to  seize  Raslcs. 

1724.  At  last,  on  the  twenty-  third  of  August,  1724,  a  party 

from    New   England   reached    Norridgewock   unper- 

ceived,   and   escaped   discovery   till   they    discharged 

their  guns  at  the  cabins. 

There  were  then  about  fifty  warriors  in  the  place. 


BOUNDARIES  ON  THE  NORTH-EAST.  337 

They  seized  their  arms,  and  marched  forth  turnultu-  CHAP 
ously,  not  to  fight,  but  to  protect  the  flight  of  their  ~~**~ 
wives,  and  children,  and  old  men.     Rasles,  roused  to 
the  danger  by  their  clamors,  went  forward  to  save  his 
flock  by  drawing  down  upon  himself  the  attention  of 
the  assailants;    and   his  hope  was  not  vain.     Mean- 
time, the  savages  fled  to  the  river,  which  they  passed 
by  wading  and  swimming,  while  the  English  pillaged 
the  cabins  and  the  church,  and  then,  heedless  of  sacri- 
lege, set  them  on  fire. 

After  the  retreat  of  the  invaders,  the  savages  re- 
turned to  nurse  their  wounded  and  bury  their  dead. 
They  found  Rasles  mangled  by  many  blows,  scalped, 
his  skull  broken  in  several  places,  his  mouth  and  eyes 
filled  with  dirt;  and  they  buried  him  beneath  the 
spot  where  he  used  to  stand  before  the  altar. 

Thus  died  Sebastian  Rasles,  the  most  noted  of  the 
Catholic  missionaries  in  New  England.  He  was  in 
his  sixty-seventh  year,  and  had  been  thirty-seven  years 
in  the  service  of  the  church  in  America.  He  was 
naturally  robust,  but  had  wasted  by  fatigues,  age,  and 
fastings.  He  knew  several  dialects  of  the  Algonquin, 
and  had  been  as  a  missionary  among  various  tribes 
from  the  ocean  to  the  Mississippi.  In  1721,  Father 
de  la  Chasse  had  advised  his  return  to  Canada.  "  God 
has  intrusted  to  me  this  flock" — such  was  his  answer ; 
"  I  shall  follow  its  fortunes,  happy  to  be  immolated  for 
its  benefit."  In  New  England,  he  was  regarded  as  the 
leader  of  the  insurgent  Indians ;  the  brethren  of  his 
order  mourned  for  him  as  a  martyr,  and  gloried  in  his 
happy  immortality  as  a  saint.  The  French  ministry, 
intent  on  giving  an  example  of  forbearance,  restrained 
VOL.  in.  43 


338  BOUNDS   OF   ENGLISH   AND   FRENCH   COLONIES. 

CHAP,  its  indignation,  and  trusted  that  the  joint  commission- 

- — *-  ers  for  regulating  boundaries  would  restore  tranquillity. 
The  overthrow  of  the  missions  completed  the  ruin 
of  French  influence.  The  English  themselves  had 
grown  skilful  in  the  Indian  warfare ;  and  no  war  par- 
ties of  the  red  men  ever  displayed  more  address  or  her- 
oism than  the  brave  John  Love  well  and  his  compan- 
ions. His  volunteer  associates  twice  returned  laden 

1725.  with  scalps.  On  a  third  expedition,  falling  into  an  am- 
bush of  a  larger  party  of  Saco  Indians,  he  lost  his  life 
in  Fryeburg,  hear  a  sheet  of  water  which  has  taken  his 
name  ;  and  the  little  stream  that  feeds  it  is  still  known 
to  the  peaceful  husbandman  as  the  Battle  Brook. 

Nov.  At  last,  the  eastern  Indians,  despairing  of  successr 
instigated,  but  not  supported,  by  the  French,  unable 
to  contend  openly  with  their  opponents,  and  excelled 
even  in  their  own  methods  of  warfare,  concluded  a 

l!ugl'  peace,  which  was  solemnly  ratified  by  the  Indian 
6-  chiefs  as  far  as  the  St.  John,  and  was  long  and  faith- 
fully maintained.  Influence  by  commerce  took  the 
place  of  influence  by  religion,  and  English  trading- 
houses  supplanted  French  missions.  The  eastern 
boundary  of  New  England  was  established. 

Beyond  New  England  no  armed  collisions  took 
place.  The  coast  between  Kennebec  and  Nova  Sco- 
tia had  ever  been  regarded  by  the  French  as  a  part  of 
their  possessions.  If  the  treaty  of  Utrecht  had  been 
silent  as  to  this  claim,  the  stipulations  of  that  treaty 
respecting  the  country  of  the  Iroquois  seemed  to  pre- 
clude the  idea  of  French  jurisdiction;  and  yet  the 
whole  basin  of  the  St.  Lawrence  was  still  considered 
as  included  within  the  limits  of  New  France.  The  wil- 
derness that  divided  the  settlements  of  the  contending 
claimants  could  but  postpone  hostilities.  By  the  treaty 


BOUNDARIES   ON  THE   LAKES   AND   THE   ST   LAWRENCE        339 

of  Utrecht,  the  subjects  and    friends   of  both  nations  CHAP 

XXI IL 

might  resort  to  each  other  for  the  reciprocal  benefit  of  ^^- 
their  trade ;  and  an  active  commerce  subsisted  between 
Albany  and  Montreal  by  means  of  the  Christian  Iro- 
quois.  In  the  administration  of  Burnet,  that  commerce 
was  prohibited ;  and,  amidst  the  bitter  hostility  of  the 
merchants  whose  trade  was  interrupted,  New  York 
established  a  commercial  post  at  Oswego.  This  was  1722. 
the  first  in  the  series  of  measures  which  carried  the 
bounds  of  the  English  colonies  towards  Michigan,  and, 
in  public  opinion,  annexed  the  north-west  to  our  coun- 
try. In  1727,  this  trading- post  was  converted  into  a 
fortress,  in  defiance  of  the  discontent  of  the  Iroquois 
and  the  constant  protest  of  France.  It  was  the  ave- 
nue through  which  the  west  was  reached  by  English 
traders,  and  the  Miamis,  and  even  the  Hurons  from 
Detroit,  found  their  way  to  Albany. 

The  limit  of  jurisdiction,  as  between  England  and 
France,  was  not  easy  of  adjustment.  Canada,  by  its 
original  charter,  comprised  the  whole  basin  of  the  St. 
Lawrence ;  and  that  part  of  Vermont  and  New  York 
which  is  watered  by  streams  flowing  to  the  St.  Law- 
rence, had  ever  been  regarded  by  France  as  Canadian 
territory.  The  boat  of  Champlain  had  entered  the  lake 
that  makes  his  name  a  familiar  word,  in  the  same  sum- 
mer in  which  Hudson  ascended  the  North  River.  Hol- 
land had  never  dispossessed  the  French ;  and  the  con- 
quost  and  surrender  of  New  Netherland  could  transfer 
no  more  than  the  possessions  of  Holland  There  was, 
therefore,  no  act  of  France  relinquishing  its  claim  till 
the  treaty  of  Utrecht.  The  ambiguous  language  of 
that  treaty  did,  indeed,  refer  to  "  the  Five  Nations  sub- 
ject to  England;"  but  French  diplomacy  would  not 


340  BOUNDS   OF   ENGLISH   AND   FRENCH    COLONIES. 

CHAP,  interpret  an  allusion  to  savage  hordes  as  an  express 
^~  surrender  of  Canadian  territory.  The  right  of  France, 
then,  to  that  part  of  New  York  and  Vermont  which 
belongs  to  the  basin  of  the  St.  Lawrence,  sprung  from 
discovery,  occupation,  the  uniform  language  of  its 
grants  and  state  papers. 

As  the  claims  of  discovery  and  earliest  occupation 
were  clearly  with  the  French,  the  English  revived  and 
exaggerated  the  rights  of  the  Five  Nations.  In  the 
strife  with  France,  during  the  government  of  De  la 
Barre,  some  of  their  chiefs  had  fastened  the  arms  of 
the  duke  of  York  to  their  castles ;  and  this  act  was 
taken  as  a  confession  of  irrevocable  allegiance  to  Eng- 
land. The  treaty  of  Ryswick  made  the  condition  at 
the  commencement  of  hostilities  the  basis  of  occupa- 
tion at  the  time  of  peace.  Now,  at  the  opening  of  the 
war,  Fort  Frontenac  had  been  razed,  and  the  country 
around  it,  and  Montreal  itself,  were  actually  in  posses- 
sion of  the  Mohawks ;  so  that  all  Upper  Canada  was 
declared  to  have  become,  by  the  treaty  of  Ryswick,  a 
part  of  the  domain  of  the  Five  Nations,  and  therefore 
subject  to  England. 

Again:  at  the  opening  of  the  war  of  the  Spanish  suc- 
1701  cession,  the  chiefs  of  the  Mohawks  and  Oneidas  had 
appeared  in  Albany ;  and  the  English  commissioners, 
who  could  produce  no  treaty,  had  seen  cause  to  make 
a  minute  in  their  books  of  entry,  that  the  Mohawks 
and  the  Oneidas  had  placed  their  hunting-grounds  un 
der  the  protection  of  the  English.  Immediately  their 
hunting-grounds  were  interpreted  to  extend  to  Lake 
Ni pissing ;  and,  on  old  English  maps,  the  vast  region 
is  included  within  the  dominions  of  England,  by  virtue 
of  an  act  of  cession  from  the  Iroquois. 

But  as  a  treaty,  of  which  no  record  existed,  could 


BOUNDARIES  ON  THE  LAKES  AND  THE  ST.  LAWRENCE.   341 

hardly  be  cited  by  English  lawyers  as  a  surrender  of  CHAP 
lands,  it  was  the  object  of  Governor  Burnet  to  obtain  ^ — 
a  confirmation  of  this  grant.    Accordingly,  in  the  treaty  l™^ 
concluded  at  Albany,  in  September,  1726,  the  cession     14, 
of  the  Iroquois  country  west  of  Lake  Erie,  and  north 
of  Erie  and  Ontario,  was  confirmed ;  and,  in  addition, 
tt  strip  of  sixty  miles  in  width,  extending  from  Oswego 
to  Cuyahoga  River  at  Cleveland,  was  "  submitted  and 
granted,"  by  sachems  of  the  three  western  tribes,  to 
"their  sovereign  lord,  King  George,"  "to  be  protected 
and  defended  by  his  said  majesty,  for  the  use  of  the 
said  three  nations."     The  chiefs  could  give  no  new 
validity  to  the  alleged  treaty  of  1701 ;  they  had  no 
authority  to  make  a  cession  of  land;    nor  were  they 
conscious  of  attempting  it.     If  France  had  renounced 
its  rights  to  Western  New  York,  it  had  done  so  only 
by  the  treaty  of  Utrecht.     Each  new  ground  for  an 
English  claim,  was  a  confession  that  the  terms  of  that 
treaty  were  far  from  being  explicit. 

But  France  did  not  merely  remonstrate  against  the 
attempt  to  curtail  its  limits  and  appropriate  its  prov- 
inces. Entering  Lake  Champlain,  it  established,  in 
1731,  the  fortress  of  the  Crown.  The  garrison  of  the 
French  was  at  first  stationed  on  the  eastern  shore  of 
the  lake,  but  soon  removed  to  the  Point,  where  its 
batteries  defended  the  approach  to  Canada  by  water, 
and  gave  security  to  Montreal. 

The  fort   at  Niagara  had  already  been   renewed. 
Among  the  public  officers  of  the  French,  who  gained 
influence  over  the  red  men  by  adapting  themselves,    • 
with  happy  facility,  to  life  in  the  wilderness,  was  the 
Indian  agent  Joncaire.    For  twenty  years  he  had  been  1721 
successfully  employed  in  negotiating  with  the  Senecas. 
He  was  become,  by  adoption,  one  of  their  own  citizens 


342  BOUNDS    OF  ENGLISH   AND   FRENCH    COLONIES. 

CHAP,  and  sons,  and  to  the  culture  of  a  Frenchman  added  the 

XXIII.    _ 

fluent  eloquence  of  an  Iroquois  warrior.     "  1  have  no 

happiness,"  said  he  in  council,  "like  that  of  living  with 
my  brothers:"  and  he  asked  leave  to  build  himself  a 

ill.  226.         * 

dwelling.  "He  is  one  of  our  own  children,"  it  was 
said,  in  reply;  "he  may  build  where  he  will."  And 
he  planted  himself  in  the  midst  of  a  group  of  cabins,  at 
1 7  2 1.  Lewiston,  higher  than  where  La  Salle  had  driven  a 
rude  palisade,  and  where  Denonville  had  designed  to 
lay  the  foundations  of  a  settlement.  In  May  of  1721 
a  party  arrived  at  the  spot  to  take  measures  for  a 
permanent  establishment;  among  them  were  the  son 
of  the  governor  of  New  France,  De  Longeuil,  from 
Montreal,  and  the  admirable  Charlevoix,  best  of  early 
writers  on  American  history.  It  was  then  resolved  to 
construct  a  fortress.  The  party  were  not  insensible 
to  the  advantages  of  the  country;  they  observed  the 
rich  soil  of  Western  New  York,  its  magnificent  forests, 
its  agreeable  and  fertile  slopes,  its  mild  climate.  "A 
good  fortress  in  this  spot,  with  a  reasonable  settlement, 
will  enable  us" — thus  they  reasoned — "to  dictate  law 
to  the  Iroquois,  and  to  exclude  the  English  from  the 
fur-trade."  And,  in  1726,  four  years  after  Burnet  had 
built  the  English  trading-house  at  Oswego,  the  flag  of 
France  floated  from  Fort  Niagara. 

The  fortress  at  Niagara  gave  a  control  over  the 
commerce  of  the  remote  interior :  if  furs  descended  by 
the  Ottawa,  they  went  directly  to  Montreal ;  and  if 
by  way  of  the  lakes,  they  passed  over  the  portage  at 
.  the  falls.  The  boundless  region  in  which  they  were 
gathered  knew  no  jurisdiction  but  that  of  the  French, 
whose  trading-canoes  were  safe  in  all  the  waters,  whose 
bark  chapels  rose  on  every  shore,  whose  missions  ex- 
tended beyond  Lake  Superior.  The  implacable  Foxes 
were  chastised,  and  driven  from  their  old  abode  on  the 


EASTERN    BOUNDARY   OF  LOUISIANA,  345 

borders  of  Green  Bay.     Exfcept  the  English  fortress  at  CHAP. 

XXIII 

Oswego,  the  entire  country  watered  by  the  St.  Law ^ 

rence  and  its  tributaries  was  possessed  by  France. 

The  same  geographical  view  was  applied  by  the 
French  to  their  province  of  Louisiana.  On  the  side 
of  Spain,  at  the  west  and  south,  it  was  held  to  extend 
to  the  River  del  Norte ;  and  on  the  map  published  by  tho 
French  Academy,  the  line  passing  from  that  river  to  the 
ridge  that  divides  it  from  the  Red  River  followed  that 
ridge  to  the  Rocky  Mountains,  and  then  descended  to 
seek  its  termination  in  the  Gulf  of  California.  On  the 
Gulf  of  Mexico,  it  is  certain  that  France  claimed  to 
the  Del  Norte.  At  the  north-west,  where  its  collision 
would  have  been  with  the  possessions  of  the  company  oreen- 
of  Hudson's  Bay,  no  treaty,  no  commission,  appears  to  M|™ir 
have  fixed  its,  limits. 

On  the  east,  the  line  as  between  Spain  and  France 
was  the  half  way  between  the  Spanish  garrison  at 
Pensacola  and  the  fort  which,  in  1711,  the  French  had 
established  on  the  site  of  the  present  city  of  Mobile : 
with  regard  to  England,  Louisiana  was  held  to  em- 
brace the  whole  valley  of  the  Mississippi.  Not  a 
fountain  bubbled  on  the  west  of  the  Alleghanies  but 
was  claimed  as  being  within  the  French  empire. 
Louisiana  stretched  to  the  head-springs  of  the  Alle- 
ghany  and  the  Monongahela,  of  the  Kenawha  and  the 
Tennessee.  "  Half  a  mile  from  the  head  of  the  south- 
ern branch  of  the  Savannah  River  is  Herbert's  Spring, 
which  flows  to  the  Mississippi:  strangers,  who  drank 
of  it,  would  say  they  had  tasted  of  French  waters."  Aad3aih 

The  energy  of  the  centralized  government  of  New 
France  enabled  it  to  act  with  promptness ;  and,  before 
the  English  government  could  direct  its  thoughts  to  the 
consequences,  the  French  had  secured  their  influence 
on  the  head-springs  of  the  Ohio. 


344  BOUNDS   OF  ENGLISH  AND   FRENCH   COLONiES. 

CHAP.      In  1698,  a  branch  of  the  Shawnees,  offended  with 

XX11I 

— — '  the  French,  established  themselves  at  Conestogo;  in 
1700,  William  Penn  received  them  as  a  part  of  the 
people  of  Pennsylvania ;  and  they  scattered  themselves 
along  the  upper  branches  of  the  Delaware  and  the 
Susquehannah.  About  the  year  1724,  the  Delaware 
Indians,  for  the  conveniency  of  game,  migrated  to  the 
branches  of  the  Ohio;  and,  in  1728,  the  Shawnees 

Jnmpfi 

IM!S!  gradually  followed  them.  They  were  soon  met  by 
Canadian  traders;  and  Joncaire,  the  adopted  citizen 
of  the  Seneca  nation,  found  his  way  to  them  from 
Lake  Erie.  The  wily  emissary  invited  their  chiefs 
to  visit  the  governor  at  Montreal  and,  in  1730, 
they  descended  with  him  to  the  settlement  at  that 
place.  In  the  next  year,  more  of  them  followed; 
and  the  warriors  of  the  tribe  put  themselves  wholly 
under  the  protection  of  Louis  XV.,  having,  at  their 
whim,  hoisted  a  white  flag  in  their  town.  It  was  even 
rumored  that,  in  1731,  the  French  were  building  strong 
houses  for  them.  The  government  of  Canada  annually 
sent  them  presents  and  messages  of  friendship,  and 
deliberately  pursued  the  design  of  estranging  them 
from  the  English. 

The  dangerous  extent  of  the  French  claims  had  for 
a  long  time  attracted  the  attention  of  the  colonies.    To 

1711*  res^st  ^  was  one  °f  tne  earliest  efforts  of  Spotswood, 
spot.-  who  hoped  to  extend  the  line  of  the  Virginia  settle- 
ments  far  enough  to  the  west  to  interrupt  the  chain  of 
communication  between  Canada  and  the  Gulf  of  Mex- 
ico. He  caused,  also,  the  passes  in  the  mountains  to 
be  examined;  desired  to  promote  settlements  beyond 
them ;  and  sought  to  concentrate  within  his  province 
bands  of  friendly  Indians.  Finding  other  measures 
ne  planned  the  incorporation  of  a  Virginia 


EASTERN    BOUNDARY    OF   LOUISIANA.  345 

Indian  company,  which,  from  the  emoluments  of  a  mo-  CHAP. 
nopoly  of  the  traffic,  should  sustain  forts  in  the  western  -- — '- 
country.     Disappointed  by  the  determined  opposition    p™' 
of  the  people  to  a  privileged  company,  he  was  still  ear-    ing?* 
nest  to  resist  the  encroachments  of  the  French.     But   iv- 5G- 
from  Williamsburg  to  Kaskaskia  the  distance  was  too 
wide  ;  and  though,  by  a  journey  across  the  mountains, 
the  right  of  Virginia  might  be  sustained,  yet  no  active 
resistance  would  become  possible  till  the  posts  of  the 
two   nations   should  be   nearer.     A  wilderness   of  a 
thousand  miles  was  a  good  guaranty  against  reciprocal 
invasions. 

In  the  more  northern  province  of  Pennsylvania,  the 
subject  never  slumbered.     In  1719,  it  was  earnestly 
pressed  upon  the  attention  of  the  lords  of  trade  by  the 
governor  of  that  colony,  who  counselled  the  establish-     MS." 
ment  by  Virginia  of  a  fort  on  Lake  Erie.    But  after  the    rial- 
migration  of  the  Delawares  and  Shawnees,  James  Lo- 
gan, the  mild  and  estimable  secretary  of  Pennsylvania, 
could  not  rest  from  remonstrances,  demanding  the  at- 
tention  of  the  proprietary  to  the  ambitious  designs  of 
France,  which  extended  "to  the  heads  of  all  the  tribu- 
taries  of  the  Ohio."     "This,"  he  rightly  added,  "in- 
terferes  with  the  five  degrees  of  longitude  of  this  prov- 
ince ; "  and  the  attention  of  the  council  was  solicited  to  1 732 . 
the  impending  danger. 

Nor  was  this  all.  In  the  autumn  of  1731,  immedi- 
ately after  the  establishment  of  Crown  Point,  Logan 
prepared  a  memorial  on  the  state  of  the  British  planta- 
tions ;  and  through  Perry,  a  member  of  the  British 
parliament,  it  was  communicated  to  Sir  Robert  Wai- 
pole.  But  "the  grand  minister  and  those  about  him 
were  too  solicitously  concerned  for  their  own  standing  to 
lay  any  thing  to  heart  that  was  at  so  great  a  distance." 
VOL.  in.  44 


Keith's 

MS. 
Memo- 


346  BOUNDS   OF  ENGLISH   AND   FRENCH   COLONIES. 

CHAP.       Thus  did  England  permit  the  French  to  establish 

X_X  III 

^•^  their  influence  along  the  banks  of  the  Alleghany  to  the 
Ohio.  They  had  already  quietly  possessed  themselves 
of  the  three  other  great  avenues  from  the  St.  Lawrence 
to  the  Mississippi ;  for  the  safe  possession  of  the  route 
by  way  of  the  Fox  and  Wisconsin,  they  had  no  oppo- 
nents but  in  the  Sacs  and  Foxes ;  that  by  way  of  Chi* 
cago  had  been  safely  pursued  since  the  days  of  Mar- 
quette ;  and  a  report  on  Indian  affairs,  written  by  Lo- 
gan, in  1718,  proves  that  they  very  early  made  use  of  the 
MS.  Miami  of  the  Lakes,  where,  after  crossing  the  carrying- 
place  of  about  three  leagues,  they  passed  the  summit 
level,  and  floated  down  a  shallow  branch  into  the  Wa- 
bash  and  the  Ohio.  Upon  this  line  of  communication 
the  French  established  a  post;  and  of  the  population 
of  Vincennes,  a  large  part  trace  their  lineage  to  early 
emigrants  from  Canada.  Yet,  as  of  Kaskaskia,  so  of 
Vincennes,  it  has  not  been  possible  to  fix  the  date  of 
its  foundation  with  precision.  The  hero,  whose  name 
it  bears,  came  to  his  end  in  1736.  This  route  may 
have  been  adopted  at  a  very  early  period,  after  La 
Salle's  return  from  Illinois;  it  was  certainly  in  use 
early  in  the  last  century.  Tradition  preserves  the 
memory  of  a  release,  in  1742,  of  lands,  which,  being 
ceded  for  the  use  of  settlers,  could  not  have  been 
granted  till  after  the  military  post  had  grown  into  a 
little  village  of  Canadian  French.  It  would  seem  that, 
in  1716,  the  route  was  established,  and,  in  conformity 
to  instructions  from  France,  was  secured  by  a  military 
post.  The  year  1735,  assumed  by  Volney  as  the  prob- 
able date  of  its  origin,  is  not  too  early.  Thus  began 
the  commonwealth  of  Indiana.  Travellers,  as  they 
passed  from  Quebec  to  Mobile  or  New  Orleans,  pitched 
their  tents  on  the  banks  of  the  Wabash ;  till,  at  last, 


LOUISIANA  DURING  THE   MONOPOLY  OF  CROZAT.  547 

in   1742,  a  few  families  of  resident  herdsmen  gained  CHAP. 

.''.-,  .  1-1  XX1U- 

permission  of  the  natives  to  pasture  their  beeves  on  — ^ 

the  fertile  fields  above  Blanche  River. 

That  Louisiana  extended  to  the  head-spring  of  the 
Alleghany,  and  included  the  Laurel  Ridge,  the  Great 
Meadows,  and  every  brook  that  flowed  to  the  Ohio, 
was,  on  the  eve  of  the  treaty  of  Utrecht,  expressly 
asserted  in  the  royal  grant  of  the  commerce  of  the  1712 
province.     Weary  of  fruitless  efforts,  Louis  XIV.  had     €p 
assigned  the  exclusive  trade  of  the  unbounded  terri- 
tory to  Anthony  Crozat,  a  French  merchant,  who  had 
u  prospered  in  opulence  to  the  astonishment  of  all  the   e°d|or8 
world."    La  Motte  Cadillac,  now  the  royal  governor 
of  Louisiana,  became  his  partner;  and  the  merchant 
proprietary  and  the  founder  of  Detroit  sought  fortune 
by  discovering  mines  and  encroaching  on  the  colonial 
monopolies  of  Spain. 

The  latter  attempt  met  with  no  success  whatever. 
Hardly  had  the  officers  of  the  new  administration  land- 
ed  at  Dauphine  Island,  when  a  vessel  was  sent  to  Vera 
Cruz;  but  it  was  not  allowed  to  dispose  of  its  cargo. 
The  deep  colonial  bigotry  of  Spain  was  strengthened 
by  the  political  jealousy  which  soon  disturbed  the  rela- 
tions between  the  governments  at  Madrid  and  Paris, —  Engayo 
while  the  French  occupation  of  Louisiana  was  itself 
esteemed  an  encroachment  on  Spanish  territory.  Ev- 
ery  Spanish  harbor  in  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  was  closed 
against  the  vessels  of  Crozat. 

It  was  next  attempted  to  institute  commercial  rela- 
tions by  land.  Had  they  been  favored,  they  could  not 
then  have  succeeded.  But  when  St.  Denys,  after  re- 
newing intercourse  with  the  Natchitoches,  again  as- 
cended the  Red  River,  and  found  his  way  from  one 
Spanish  post  to  another,  till  he  reached  a  fortress  in 


348  LOUISIANA  DURING  THE  MONOPOLY  OF  CROZAT. 

CHAP.  Mexico,  his  enterprise  was  followed  by  his  imprison- 

~~^  ment;  and  even  liberty  of  commerce  across  the  wil- 
derness was  sternly  refused. 

1714  From  the  mines  of  Louisiana  it  was  still  hoped  to 
obtain  "great  quantities  of  gold  and  silver;"  and  for 
many  years  the  hope  agitated  France  with  vague  but 
confident  expectations.  Two  pieces  of  silver  ore,  left 
at  Kaskaskia  by  a  traveller  from  Mexico,  were  exhibit- 
ed to  Cadillac  as  the  produce  of  a  mine  in  Illinois;  and, 
elated  by  the  seeming  assurance  of  success,  he  hurried 
up  the  river,  to  be,  in  his  turn,  disappointed, — finding 
in  Missouri  abundance  of  the  purest  ore  of  lead,  but 
neither  silver  nor  gold. 

For  the  advancement  of  the  colony  Crozat  accom- 
plished nothing.  The  only  prosperity  which  it  pos- 
sessed grew  out  of  the  enterprise  of  humble  individ- 
uals, who  had  succeeded  in  instituting  a  little  barter 
between  themselves  and  the  natives,  and  a  petty  trade 
with  neighboring  European  settlements.  These  small 
sources  of  prosperity  were  cut  off  by  the  profitless  but 
fatal  monopoly  of  the  Parisian  merchant.  The  Indians 
were  too  numerous  to  be  resisted  by  his  factors.  The 
English  gradually  appropriated  the  trade  with  the 
natives;  and  every  Frenchman  in  Louisiana,  except 
his  agents,  fomented  opposition  to  his  privileges.  Cro- 
zat resigned  his  charter.  On  receiving  it,  Louisiana 
possessed  twenty-eight  French  families:  in  1717,  when 
he  abandoned  it,  the  troops  sent  by  the  king,  joined  to 
the  colonists,  did  not  swell  the  inhabitants  of  the  colo- 
ny to  more  than  seven  hundred,  including  persons  of 
every  age,  sex,  and  color.  These  few  were  extended 

1714  from  the  neighborhood  of  the  Creeks  to  Natchitoches. 
On  the  head  waters  of  the  Alabama,  at  the  junction  of 

1714.  the  Coosa  and  the  Tallapoosa,  with  the  aid  of  a  band 


LOUISIANA   DURING  THE   MONOPOLY  OF  CROZAT.  349 

of  Choctas,  Fort  Toulouse,  a  small  military  post,  was  CHAP. 

~A.Jv.lll. 

built  and  garrisoned.     After  a  short  period  of  hostili- 


Meek'a 


ties,  which  sprung,  in  part,  from  the  influence  of  Eng- 
lish   traders    among  the  Chickasas,   the  too  powerful     "•' 
Bienville  chanted  the  calumet  with  the  great  chief  of  1716 
the  Natchez;  and  Fort  Rosalie,  built  chiefly  by  the 
natives,  protected    the   French  commercial  establish- 
ment in  their  village.     Such  was  the  origin  of  the  city 
of  Natchez.     In  the  Mississippi  valley,  it  takes  rank, 
in  point  of  age,  of  every  settlement  south  of  Illinois. 

The  monopoly  of  Crozat  was  terminated  by  its  sur- 
render. The  mines,  and  commerce,  and  boundless 
extent,  of  Louisiana  were  now  invoked  to  relieve  the 
burden  and  renew  the  credit  of  the  metropolis.  The 
human  mind  is  full  of  trust ;  men  in  masses  always 
have  faith  in  the  approach  of  better  times ;  humanity 
abounds  in  hope.  The  valley  of  the  Mississippi  in- 
flamed the  imagination  of  France :  anticipating  the 
future,  the  French  nation  beheld  the  certain  opulence 
of  coming  ages  as  within  their  immediate  grasp ;  and 
John  Law,  who  possessed  the  entire  confidence  of  the 
regent,  obtained  the  whole  control  of  the  commerce  of 
Louisiana  and  Canada. 

The  debt  which  Louis  XIV.  bequeathed  to  his  suc- 
cessor, after  arbitrary  reductions,  exceeded  two  thou- 
sand millions  of  livres;  and,  to  meet  the  annual 
interest  of  eighty  millions,  the  surplus  revenues  of  the 
state  did  not  yield  more  than  nine  millions.  Hence 
the  national  securities  were  of  uncertain  value;  and 
the  national  burdens  exceeded  the  national  Resources. 
In  this  period  of  depression,  John  Law  proposed  to  the 
regent  a  credit  system,  which  should  liberate  the  state 
from  its  enormous  burden,  not  by  loans,  on  which  inter- 
est must  be  paid, — not  by  taxes,  that  would  be  burden- 


350  LOUISIANA    AND    THE    MISSISSIPPI   COMPANY 

CHAP,  some  to  the  people, — but  by  a  system  which  should 

*  bring  all  the  money  of  France  on  deposit.     It  was  the 

faith  of  Law,  that  the  currency  of  a  country  is  but  the 
representative  of  its  moving  wealth*;  that  this  repre- 
sentative need  not  possess,  in  itself,  an  intrinsic  value, 
but  may  be  made,  not  of  stamped  metals  only,  but  of 
shells  or  paper;  that,  where  gold  and  silver  are  the 
only  circulating  medium,  the  wealth  of  a  nation  may 
at  once  be  indefinitely  increased  by  an  arbitrary  infu- 
sion of  paper  ;  that  credit  consists  in  the  excess  of  cir- 
culation over  immediate  resources ;  and  that  the  ad- 
vantage of  credit  is  in  the  direct  ratio  of  that  excess. 
Applying  these  maxims  to  all  France,  he  gradually 
planned  the  whimsically  gigantic  project  of  collecting 
all  the  gold  and  silver  of  the  kingdom  into  one  bank 
At  first,  from  his  private  bank,  having  a  nominal  capi- 
tal of  six  million  livres,  of  which  a  part  was  payable  in 
1716.  government  notes,  bills  were  emitted  with  moderation; 
and,  while  the  despotic  government  had  been  arbitra- 
rily changing  the  value  of  its  coin,  his  notes,  being  pay- 
able in  coin  at  an  unvarying  standard  of  weight  and 
fineness,  bore  a  small  premium.  When  Crozat  re- 
signed the  commerce  of  Louisiana,  it  was  transferred 
to  the  Western  company,  better  known  as  the  compa- 
ny of  Mississippi,  instituted  under  the  auspices  of  Law. 
The  stock  of  the  corporation  was  fixed  at  two  hundred 
thousand  shares,  of  five  hundred  livres  each,  to  be  paid 
m  any  certificates  of  public  debt.  Thus  nearly  one 
hundred  millions  of  the  most  depreciated  of  the  public 
stocks  we're  suddenly  absorbed.  The  government  thus 
changed  the  character  of  its  obligations  from  an  in- 
debtedness to  individuals  to  an  indebtedness  to  a 
favored  company  of  its  own  creation.  Through  the 
bank  of  Law,  the  interest  on  the  debt  was  discharged 


LOUISIANA   AND   THE    MISSISSIPPI   COMPANY.  351 

punctually;  and  in  consequence,  the  evidences  of  debt,  CHAP. 
which  were  received  in  payment  for  stock,  rose  rapidly  — — " 
from  a  depreciation  of  two  thirds  to  par  value.  Al- 
though the  union  of  the  bank  with  the  hazards  of  a 
commercial  company  was  an  omen  of  the  fate  of  u  the 
system,"  public  credit  seemed  restored  as  if  by  a  mira- 
cle. The  ill  success  of  La  Salle,  of  Iberville,  and 
Crozat,  the  fruitlessness  of  the  long  search  for  the 
mines  of  St.  Barbe,  were  notorious ;  yet  tales  were  re- 
vived of  the  wealth  of  Louisiana;  its  ingots  of  gold 
had  been  seen  in  Paris.  The  vision  of  a  fertile  em- 
pire, with  its  plantations,  manors,  cities,  and  busy 
wharves,  a  monopoly  of  commerce  throughout  all 
French  North  America,  the  certain  products  of  the 
richest  silver  mines  and  mountains  of  gold,  were 
blended  in  the  French  mind  into  one  boundless  prom- 
ise of  untold  treasures.  The  regent,  who  saw  open- 
ing before  him  unlimited  resources, — the  nobility,  the 
churchmen,  who  competed  for  favors  from  the  privi- 
leged institution, — the  stockjobbers,  including  dukes 
and  peers,  marshals  and  bishops,  women  of  rank, 
statesmen  and  courtiers, — eager  to  profit  by  the  sud- 
den and  indefinite  rise  of  stocks,  conspired  to  reverence 
Law  as  the  greatest  man  of  his  age. 

It  was  in  September,  1717,  that  the  Western  compa- 
ny obtained  its  grant.     On  the  twenty-fifth  day  of  the 
following  August,  after  a  long  but  happy  voyage,  the 
Victory,  the  Duchess  of  Noailles,  and  the  Mary,  bear- 
ing eight   hundred  emigrants   for   Louisiana,  chanted 
their  Te  Deum  as  they  cast   anchor  near  Dauphine  3718. 
Island.     Already  had  Bienville,  in  the  midsummer  of  Vijef 
1718,  as  he  descended  the  Mississippi,  selected  on  its    nut. 
banks  a  site  for  the  capital  of  the  new  empire ;  and  , 
from  the  prince  who  denied  God,  and  "  trembled  at  a  ^'. 


352  LOUISIANA    AND    THE    MISSISSIPPI    COMPANY. 

CHAP,  star,"  the  dissolute  but  generous  regent  of  France,  the 

XXIII  ' 

- — '-^  promised  city  received  the  name  of  New  Orleans.  In- 
stead of  ascending  the  river  in  the  ships,  the  emigrants 
disembarked  on  the  crystalline  sands  of  Dauphine 
Island,  to  make  their  way  as  they  could  to  the  lands 
that  had  been  ceded  to  them.  Some  perished  for  want 
of  enterprise,  some  from  the  climate ;  others  prospered 
by  their  indomitable  energy.  The  Canadian  Du  Tisse- 
net,  purchasing  a  compass,  and  taking  an  escort  of  four- 
teen Canadians,  went  fearlessly  from  Dauphine  Island, 
by  way  of  the  Mobile  River,  to  Quebec,  and  returned 
to  the  banks  of  the  Mississippi  with  his  family.  The 
most  successful  colonists  of  Louisiana  were  the  hardy 
emigrants  from  Canada,  who  brought  with  them  little 
beyond  a  staff  and  the  coarse  clothes  that  covered  them. 

1718.       Of  the  recent  emigrants  from  France,  eighty  con- 

E^pet  victs  were  sent  amongst  the  coppices  that  overspread 
Hist.  New  Orleans,  to  prepare  room  for  a  few  tents  and  cot- 
tages. At  the  end  of  more  than  three  years,  the  place 
was  still  a  wilderness  spot,  where  two  hundred  per 
sons,  sent  to  construct  a  city,  had  but  encamped 
among  unsubdued  canebrakes.  And  yet  the  enlight- 

iso'aild  ene^  traveller  held  America  happy,  as  the  land  in 
44°*  which  the  patriot  could  sigh  over  no  decay,  could 
point  in  sorrow  to  no  ruins  of  a  more  prosperous  age ; 
and,  with  cheerful  eye  looking  into  futurity,  he  predict- 
ed the  opulence  and  vastness  of  the  city  which  was 
destined  to  become  the  emporium  of  the  noblest  valley 
in  the  world.  Still  the  emigrants  of  the  company, 
though,  in  the  winter  of  1718,  one  of  their  ships  had 
sailed  up  the  river,  blindly  continued  to  disembark  on 
the  miserable  coast;  and,  even  in  1721,  Bienville  him- 
self a  -second  time  established  the  head  quarters  of 
Louisiana  at  Biloxi. 


LOUISIANA  AND  THE  MISSISSIPPI   COMPANY.  353 

Meantime,  Alberoni,  the  active  minister  of  Spain,  CHAP. 

XXIII. 

having,  contrary  to   the   interests  of  France  and  of  

Spain,  involved  the  two  countries  in  a  war,  De  Serigny  1719* 
arrived  in  February  of  1719,  with  orders  to  take  pos- 
session of  Pensacola.  This  is  the  bay  called,  in  the 
dajs  of  De  Soto,  Anchusi,  afterwards  Saint  Mary,  and 
Saint  Mary  of  Galve.  In  1696,  Don  Andres  de  Arri- 
ola  had  built  upon  its  margin  a  fort,  a  church,  and  a 
few  houses,  in  a  place  without  commerce  or  agricul- 
ture, or  productive  labor  of  any  kind.  By  the  capture 
of  the  fort,  which,  after  five  hours'  resistance,  surren- 
dered, the  French  hoped  to  extend  their  power  along 
the  Gulf  of  Mexico  from  the  Rio  del  Norte  to  the  At-  May' 
lantic.  But  within  forty  days  the  Spaniards  recovered 
the  town,  and  attempted,  in  their  turn,  to  conquer  the 
French  posts  on  Dauphine  Island  and  on  the  Mobile. 
In  September,  the  French  recovered  Pensacola,  which, 
by  the  treaty  of  1721,  reverted  to  Spain.  The  tidings 
of  peace  were  welcomed  at  Biloxi  with  heartfelt  joy. 

During  the  period  of  hostility,  La  Harpe,  in  a  letter  1720 
to  the  nearest  Spanish  governor,  had  claimed  "Texas  Ja£l8> 
to  the  Del  Norte  as  a  part  of  Louisiana."    France  was    aiss5' 
too  feeble  to  stretch  its  colonies  far  to  the  west ;  but 
its  rights  were  esteemed  so  clear,  that,  in  time  of  peace, 
the  attempt  to  occupy  the  country  was  renewed.    This  1722 
second  attempt  of  Bernard  de  la  Harpe  to  plant  a  colo- 
ny near  the  Bay  of  Matagorda  had  no  other  results 
than  to  incense  the  natives  against  the  French,  and  to 
stimulate  the  Spaniards  to  the  occupation  of  the  coun- 
try by  a  fort.    Yet  the  French  ever  regarded  the  mouth 
of  the  Del  Norte  as  the  western  limit  of  Louisiana  o*: 
the  Gulf  of  Mexico;  and  English  geography  recognized    j[j£ 
the  claim. 

But  a  change  had  taken  place  in  the  fortunes  of  the, 
VOL.  in.  45 


364  LOUISIANA   AND   THE    MISSISSIPPI    COMPANY, 

CHAP.  Mississippi  company.  By  its  connection  with  the 
— ~  bank  of  Law,  its  first  attempts  at  colonization  were 
conducted  with  careless  prodigality.  The  richest  prai- 
ries, the  most  inviting  fields,  in  the  southern  valley  of 
the  Mississippi,  were  conceded  to  companies  or  to  in- 
dividuals who  sought  principalities  in  the  New  World, 
Thus  it  was  hoped  that  at  least  six  thousand  while 
colonists  would  be  established  in  Louisiana.  To  Law 
Du  himself  there  was  conceded  on  the  Arkansas  one  of 
Fw"OB»  those  vast  prairies,  of  which  the  wide-spreading  waves 
E235*'  °f  verdure  are  bounded  only  by  the  azure  of  the  sky. 
1719.  There  he  designed  to  plant  a  city  and  villages ;  his  in- 
vestments rapidly  amounted  to  a  million  and  a  half  of 
livres ;  through  the  company,  which  he  directed,  pos- 
sessing a  monopoly  of  the  slave-trade  for  the  French 
colonies,  he  had  purchased  three  hundred  negroes, 
mechanics  from  France,  and  a  throng  of  German  emi- 
grants, were  engaged  in  his  service  or  as  his  tenants , 
his  commissioners  lavished  gifts  on  the  tribes  with 
whom  they  smoked  the  calumet.  But  when,  in  1727, 
a  Jesuit  priest  arrived  there,  he  found  only  thirty  needy 
Frenchmen,  who  had  been  abandoned  by  their  employ- 
er, and  had  no  consolation  but  in  the  blandness  of  the 
climate  and  the  unrivalled  fertility  of  the  soil.  The 
decline  of  Louisiana  was  a  consequence  of  financial 
changes  in  France. 

1719  In  January  of  1719,  the  bank  of  Law  became,  by  a 
^  negotiation  with  the  regent,  the  Bank  of  France  ;  and 
a  government  which  had  almost  absolute  power  of 
legislation  conspired  to  give  the  widest  extension  to 
Triiat  was  called  credit.  "Law  might  have  regulated 
at  his  pleasure  the  interest  of  money,  the  value  of 
stocks,  the  pi  ice  of  labor  and  of  produce.'7  The  con- 
test between  paper  and  specie  began  to  rage, — the 


LOUISIANA  AND  THE   MISSISSIPPI   COMPANY.  355 

one  buoyed  up  bj  despotic  power,  the  other  appealing  CHAP. 
to  common  sense.  Within  four  years,  a  succession  of  — ^ 
decrees  changed  the  relative  value  of  the  livre  not  less 
than  fifty  times,  that,  from  disgust  at  fluctuation,  paper 
at  a  fixed  rate  might  be  preferred.  All  taxes  were  to 
be  collected  in  paper ;  at  last,  paper  was  made  the 
legal  tender  in  all  payments.  To  win  the  little  gold 
and  silver  that  was  hoarded  by  the  humbler  classes, 
small  bills,  as  low  even  as  of  ten  livres,  were  put  in 
circulation.  The  purchase  of  the  bank  by  the  govern- 
ment met  less  opposition,  when  a  second  scheme  was 
devised  for  absorbing  its  issues.  Two  kinds  of  paper 
— bills  payable  on  demand  and  certificates  of  stock — 
were  put  abroad  together ;  and  the  stupendous  project 
was  formed  of  paying  off  the  public  debt  in  bank  bills, 
to  absorb  which  new  shares  in  the  Mississippi  compa 
ny,  under  its  title  of  Company  of  the  Indies,  were  con- 
stantly created  and  offered  for  sale.  The  extravagance 
of  hope  was  nourished  by  the  successive  surrender  to 
that  corporation  of  additional  monopolies, — the  trade  in 
Africans,  the  trade  on  the  Indian  seas,  the  sale  of  to- 
bacco, the  profits  of  the  royal  mint,  the  profits  of  farm- 
ing the  whole  revenue  of  France, — till  a  promise  of  a 
dividend  of  forty  per  cent.,  from  a  company  which  had 
the  custody  of  all  the  revenues  and  the  benefit  of  all  the 
commerce  of  France,  obtained  belief,  and  the  shares 
which  might  be  issued  after  a  payment  of  a  first  in- 
stalment of  five  hundred  livres,  rose  in  price  a  thou- 
sand per  cent.  Avarice  became  a  frenzy;  its  fury 
seized  every  member  of  the  royal  family,  men  of  let- 
ters, prelates,  women.  Early  in  the  morning,  the  ex- 
change opened  with  beat  of  drum  and  sound  of  bell, 
and  closed  at  night  on  avidity  that  could  not  slumber. 
To  doubt  the  wealth  of  Louisiana  provoked  anger  t 


356  LOUISIANA  AND   THE    MISSISSIPPI  COMPANY. 

CHAP.  New  Orleans  was  famous  at  Paris  as  a  beautiful  city 

JLJ\.111« 

s almost  before  the  canebrakes  began  to  be  cut  down. 

The  hypocrisy  of  manners,  which,  in  the  old  age  of 
Louis  XIV.,  made  religion  become  a  fashion,  revolted 
to  libertinism ;  and  licentious  pleasure  was  become  the 
parent  of  an  equally  licentious  cupidity.  Thus  the  re- 
gent, purchasing  directly  of  the  company  a  share  for 
five  hundred  livres,  was  able  to  sell  it  at  a  great  ad- 
vance, perhaps  for  five  thousand.  The  public  creditor 
paid  virtually  ten  livres  of  public  debt  for  one  livre  of 
the  stock,  and,  instead  of  holding  government  securi- 
ties, became  a  stockholder  in  an  untried  company.  In 
this  manner,  in  the  course  of  sixteen  months,  more 

•  than  two  thousand  millions  of  bills  were  emitted ;  and 
the  regent's  mother  could  write  that  "  all  the  king's 
debts  were  paid."  The  extravagances  of  stockjobbing 
were  increased  by  the  latent  distrust  alike  of  the  shares 
and  of  the  bills;  men  purchased  stock  because  they 
feared  the  end  of  the  paper  system,  and  because  with 
the  bills  they  could  purchase  nothing  else.  The  fraud 
grew  to  be  apparent;  the  parliament  protested  that 
private  persons  were  by  the  system  defrauded  of  three 
fifths  of  their  income.  To  stifle  doubt,  Law,  who  had 

Jan.  5.  made  himself  a  Catholic,  was  appointed  comptroller- 

Feb.  general ;  and  the  new  minister  of  finance  perfected  the 
triumph  of  paper  by  a  decree  that  no  person  or  corpo- 
ration should  have  on  hand  more  than  five  hundred 
livres  in  specie  ;  the  rest  must  be  exchanged  for  paper; 
and  all  payments,  except  for  sums  under  one  hundred 
livres,  must  be  paid  in  paper.  Terror  and  the  dread 
of  informers  brought,  within  three  weeks,  forty-four 

March  millions  into  the  bank.  In  March,  a  decree  of  council 
fixed  the  value  of  the  stock  at  nine  thousand  livres  for 
five  hundred,  and  forbade  certain  corporations  to  in- 


LOUISIANA   AND  THE    MISSISSIPPI   COMPANY  357 

vest  money  in  any  thing  else;  all  circulation  of  gold  CHAP. 
and  silver,  except  for  change,  was  prohibited ;  all  pay-  — ^~ 
ments  must  be  made  in  paper,  except  for  sums  under  172° 
ten  livres.  He  who  should  have  attempted  to  convert 
a  bill  into  specie,  would  have  exposed  his  specie  to 
forfeiture  and  himself  to  fines.  Confidence  disap- 
peared, and  in  May  bankruptcy  was  avowed  by  a 
decree  which  reduced  the  value  of  bank  notes  by  a 
moiety.  When  men  are  greatly  in  the  wrong,  and 
especially  when  they  have  embarked  their  fortunes  in 
their  error,  they  wilfully  resist  light.  So  k  had  been 
with  the  French  people  :  they  remained  faithful  to 
their  delusion,  till  France  was  impoverished,  public  and 
private  credit  subverted,  the  income  of  capitalists  anni- 
hilated, and  labor  left  without  employment, — while,  in 
the  midst  of  the  universal  wretchedness  of  the  mid- 
dling class,  a  few  wary  speculators  gloried  in  the  un- 
just acquisition  and  enjoyment  of  immense  wealth. 

Such  was  the  issue  of  Law's  celebrated  system, 
which  left  to  the  world  a  lesson  the  .world  was  slow  to 
learn — that  the  enlargement  of  the  circulation  quickens 
industry  so  long  only  as  the  enlargement  continues,  for 
prices  then  rise,  and  every  kind  of  labor  is  remunerated ; 
that  when  this  increase  springs  from  artificial  causes, 
it  must  meet  with  a  check,  and  be  followed  by  a  reac- 
tion ;  that  when  the  reaction  begins,  the  high  remu- 
nerating prices  decline,  labor  fails  to  find  an  equivalent, 
and  each  evil  opposite  to  the  previous  advantages  en- 
sues ;  that  therefore  every  artificial  expansion  of  the 
currency,  every  expansion  resting  on  credit  alone,  is  a 
source  of  confusion  and  ultimate  loss  to  the  community, 
and  brings  benefits  to  none  but  to  those  who  are  skilful 
in  foreseeing  and  profiting  by  the  fluctuations.  The 
chancellor  d'Aguesseau,  who  was  driven  from  office  be- 


358  LOUISIANA   AND   THE    MISSISSIPPI   COMPANY. 

CHAP,  cause  he  could  show  no  favor  to  the  system,  was,  after  a 

xxm.  .  J 

•• short  period  of  retirement,  restored  to  greater  honors 

than  before,  and  lives  in  the  memory  of  the  world  as  a 
tolerant  and  incorruptible  statesman, — while  those  who 
yielded  to  the  reckless  vanity  and  promises  of  Law, 
have  been  rescued  from  infamy  only  by  oblivion. 

The  downfall  of  Law  abruptly  curtailed  expendi- 
tures for  Louisiana.  But  a  colony  was  already  planted, 
destined  to  survive  all  dangers,  even  though  in  France 
Louisiana  was  involved  in  disgrace.  Instead  of  the 
splendid  visions  of  opulence,  the  disenchanted  public 
would  now  see  only  unwholesome  marshes,  which 
were  the  tombs  of  emigrants;  its  name  was  a  name 
of  disgust  and  terror.  The  garrison  of  Fort  Toulouse 
1722.  revolted;  and  of  the  soldiers  six-and-twenty  departed 
M^ek;8  for  the  English  settlements  of  Carolina.  Overtaken 
west,  by  Villemont,  with  a  body  of  Choctas,  the  unhappy 
wretches  were  in  part  massacred,  in  part  conducted  to 
Mobile  and  executed.  Even  the  wilderness  could  not 
moderate  the  barbarisms  of  military  discipline. 

The  Alabama  River  had  been  a  favorite  line  of  com- 
munication with  the  north.  From  the  easier  connec- 
tion of  Mobile  with  the  sea,  it  remained  a  principal 
post;  but,  in  August  of  1723,  the  quarters  of  Bien- 
ville  were  transferred  to  New  Orleans.  Thus  the  cen- 
tral point  of  French  power,  after  hovering  round  Ship 
Island  and  Dauphine  Island,  the  Bays  of  Biloxi  and 
Mobile,  was  at  last  established  on  the  banks  of  the 
Mississippi;  and  the  emigrants  to  Arkansas  gathered 
into  settlements  along  the  river  nearer  to  New  Orleans. 

The  villages  of  the  Natchez,  planted  in  the  midst  of 
the  most  fertile  climes  of  the  south-west,  rose  near  the 
banks  of  the  Mississippi.  Each  was  distinguished  by 
a  receptacle  for  the  dead.  In  the  sacred  building,  of 


WAR    BETWEEN    THE    FRENCH    AND    THE    NATCHEZ.  359 

an  oval  shape,  having  a  circumference  of  one  hundred  CHAP. 

feet, — a  simple  hut,  without  a  window,  and  with  a  low  ~ 

and  narrow  opening  on  the  side  for  the  only  door, — 
were  garnered  up  the  choicest  fetiches  of  the  tribe,  of  E^, 
which  some  were  moulded  from  clay  and  baked  in  the 
sun.  There,  too,  were  gathered  the  bones  of  the  dead ; 
there  an  undying  fire  was  kept  burning  by  appointed 
guardians,  as  if  to  warm,  and  light,  and  cheer,  the  de- 
parted. On  the  palisades  around  this  edifice,  which 
has  been  called  a  temple,  the  ghastly  trophies  of  vic- 
tories were  arranged.  Once,  when,  during  a  storm, 
such  as  in  those  regions  sometimes  blends  the  ele- 
ments, rocks  the  forest,  and  bows  the  hearts  of  the 
bravest,  the  sacred  edifice  caught  fire  from  the  light- 
ning, seven  or  eight  mothers  won  the  applause  of  the 
terror-stricken  tribes  by  casting  their  babes  into  the  ^U26?. 
flames  to  appease  the  unknown  power  of  evil. 

The  grand  chief  of  the  tribe  was  revered  as  of  the 
family  of  the  sun,  and  he  could  trace  his  descent  with 
certainty  from  the  nobles ;  for  the  inheritance  of  power 
was  transmitted  exclusively  by  the  female  line.  Hard 
by  the  temple,. on  an  artificial  mound  of  earth,  stood 
the  hut  of  the  Great  Sun :  around  it  were  grouped  the 
cabins  of  the  tribe.  There,  for  untold  years,  the  sav- 
age had  freely  whispered  his  tale  of  love;  had  won  his 
bride  by  a  purchase  from  the  father;  had  placed  his 
trust  in  his  manitous ;  had  turned,  at  daybreak,  towards 
the  east,  to  hail  and  worship  the  beams  of  morning; 
had  listened  to  the  revelations  of  dreams ;  had  invoked 
the  aid  of  the  medicine  men  to  dance  the  medicine 
dance  ;  had  achieved  titles  of  honor  by  prowess  in  war; 
had  tortured  and  burned  his  prisoners.  There  were 
fhe  fields  where,  in  spring,  the  whole  tribe  had  gone 
forth  to  cultivate  the  maize  and  vines :  there  the 


360  LOUISIANA  AND    THE    MISSISSIPPI    COMPANY. 

CHAP,  scenes  of  the  glad  festivals  at  the  gathering  of  the  har- 

2kJ?LJLlI* 

— —  vest;  there  the  natural  amphitheatres,  where  councils 
were  convened,  and  embassies  received,  and  the  calu- 
met of  reconciliation  passed  in  solemn  ceremonv  from 
lip  to  lip.  There  the  dead  had  been  arrayed  in  then- 
proudest  apparel;  the  little  baskets  of  food  for  the  first 
month  after  death  set  apart  for  their  nurture;  the  re- 
quiem chanted  by  the  women  in  mournful  strains  over 
their  bones ;  and  there,  when  a  great  chief  died,  per- 
sons of  the  same  age  were  strangled,  that  they  might 
constitute  his  escort  into  the  realm  of  shades. 

Nowhere  was  the  power  of  the  grand  chieftain  so 
nearly  despotic.  The  race  of  nobles  was  so  distinct, 
that  usage  had  moulded  language  into  forms  of  rev- 
erence. In  other  respects,  there  was  among  the 
Natchez  no  greater  culture  than  among  the  Choctas; 
and  their  manners  hardly  differed  from  those  of  north- 
ern tribes,  except  as  they  were  modified  by  climate. 

The  French,  who  were  cantoned  among  the  Natch- 
ez, coveted  their  soil ;  the  commander,  Chopart,  swayed 
by  a  brutal  avarice,  demanded  as  a  plantation  the  very 

A353.r>  s^te  °f  tne*r  principal  village.  They  listened  to  the 
counsels  of  the  Chickasas ;  they  prevailed  in  part  with 
the  Choctas ;  and  a  general  massacre  of  the  intruders 
was  concerted.  The  arrival  of  boats  from  New  Or- 
leans with  merchandise  hastened  the  rising  of  the 

1729.  Natchez.  On  the  morning  of  the  twenty-eighth  of 
November,  1729,  the  work  of  blood  began,  and  before 
noon  nearly  every  Frenchman  in  the  colony  was 
murdered. 

The  Great  Sun,  taking  his  seat  under  the  store- 
house of  the  company,  smoked  the  calumet  in  compla- 
cency, while  the  head  of  Chopart  was  laid  at  his  feet. 
One  after  another,  the,  heads  of  the  principal  officers 


WAR    BETWEEN    THE    FRENCH   AND   THE    NATCHEZ.  361 

at  the  post  were  ranged  in  order  around  it,  while  their  CHAP. 

bodies  were  left  abroad  to  be  a  prey  to  dogs  and  buz-  

zards.  At  that  time,  the  Jesuit  Du  Poisson  was  the 
appointed  missionary  among  the  Arkansas.  Two 
years  before,  he  had  made  his  way  up  the  Mississippi 
from  New  Orleans.  On  each  of  the  nearest  planta- 
tions which  he  saw  in  his  progress,  bands  of  sixty 
negroes  had  already  succeeded  in  cultivating  maize, 
tobacco,  indigo,  and  rice.  His  companions,  as  thev 
advanced,  now  dragged  the  boat  along  shore,  now 
stemmed  the  torrent  by  rowing.  At  night,  they  made 
a  resting-place  by  spreading  canvass  over  boughs  of 
trees  heaped  together  on  the  miry  bank ;  or,  making 
their  boat  fast  to  some  raft  that,  covering  many  roods, 
had  floated  down  the  stream  till  it  became  entangled 
in  the  roots  of  trees  overthrown  but  not  wholly  loosened 
from  the  soil,  they  would  upon  the  raft  itself  kindle 
their  evening  fire  and  prepare  their  meal,— and  prepare 
it  exultingly,  if  the  huntsman  of  the  party  had  chanced 
to  kill  a  deer  or  a  bear;  or,  toiling  through  the  mud, 
and  forests,  and  canes,  they  would  make  their  way  to 
the  cabin  of  some  petty  chief,  and  intrude  on  the  hos- 
pitality of  the  red  dwellers  in  the  morasses ;  or  would 
seek,  as  at  Point  Coupee,  the  humble  mansion  of 
some  French  settler,  who,  amidst  the  giant  forests, 
had  raised  a  cabin  on  piles,  as  a  security  against  the 
overflowing  of  the  river, — where,  by  the  side  of  the 
immense  activity  of  vegetative  power,  an  overseer  and 
a  few  negroes  exhibited  the  puny  efforts  of  man  at 
mastering  nature,  in  contrast  with  the  majesty  of  the 
stream,  whose  waters  flooded,  whose  alluvial  deposits 
fertilized,  the  wide  expanse  of  lowlands.  Thus  the 
pilgrim  had  ascended  the  Mississippi,  now  drinking  the 
turbid  but  wholesome  waters  with  a  reed ;  now  tasting 
VOL.  in.  46 


362  LOUISIANA   AND   THE    MISSISSIPPI    COMPANY 

CHAP,  the  wild  and  as  yet  unripe  grapes,  which  grew  by  the 
'  banks  of  the  river;  now  hiding  from  the  clouds  of  mos- 
quitoes beneath  a  stifling  awning ;  now  accompanied  in 
the  boat  by  one  army  of  insects,  and,  as  he  passed  near 
a  coppice  of  willows  or  a  canebrake,  overwhelmed  by 
another ;  till  he  reached  the  prairies  that  had  been  se- 
lected for  the  plantations  of  Law,  and  smoked  the 
calumet  with  the  southernmost  tribes  of  the  Dahco- 
tas.  Desiring  to  plan  a  settlement  near  the  margin  of 
26.  the  Mississippi,  he  had  touched  at  Natchez,  in  search 
of  counsel,  had  preached  on  the  first  Sunday  in  ad- 
vent, had  visited  the  sick,  and  was  returning  with  the 
host  from  the  cabin  of  a  dying  man,  when  he,  too,  was 
struck  to  the  ground,  and  beheaded.  The  Arkansas, 
hearing  of  his  end,  vowed  that  they  would  avenge  him 
with  a  vengeance  that  should  never  be  appeased.  Du 
Cod£re,  the  commander  of  the  post  among  the  Yazoos, 
,  who  had  drawn  his  sword  to  defend  the  missionary, 
was  himself  killed  by  a  musket  ball,  and  scalped  be- 
cause his  hair  was  long  and  beautiful.  The  planter 
De  Koli,  a  Swiss  by  birth,  one  of  the  most  worthy 
men,  zealous  for  the  colony,  had  come,  with  his  son, 
to  take  possession  of  a  tract  of  land  on  St.  Catharine's 
Creek;  and  both  were  shot.  The  Capuchin  missionary 
among  the  Natchez  chanced  to  be  absent  when  the 
massacre  began;  returning,  he  was  shot  near  his  cabin, 
and  a  negro  slave  by  his  side.  Two  white  men,  both 
mechanics,  and  two  only,  were  saved.  The  number  of 
victims  was  reckoned  at  two  hundred.  Women  were 
spared  for  menial  services ;  children,  also,  were  de- 
tained as  captives.  When  the  work  of  death  was 
finished,  pillage  and  carousals  began. 

The  news  spread  dismay  in  New  Orleans.    Messen- 
gers were  sent  with  the  tidings  to  the  Illinois,  by  way 


Du- 
ll. 145 


WAR    BETWEEN    THE    FRENCH   AND   THE    NATCHEZ.  363 

of  the  Red  River,  and  to  the  Choctas  and  Cherokees.  CHAP. 

Each  house  was  supplied  with  arms ;  the  city  fortified * 

by  a  ditch.  Danger  appeared  on  every  side.  The 
negroes,  of  whom  the  number  was  about  two  thousand, 
half  as  large  as  the  number  of  the  French,  showed 
symptoms  of  revolt.  But  the  brave,  enterprising  Le 
Sueur,  repairing  to  the  Choctas,  ever  ready  to  engage 
in  excursions,  won  them  to  his  aid,  and  was  followed 
across  the  country  by  seven  hundred  of  their  warriors. 
On  the  river  the  forces  of  the  French  were  assembled, 
and  placed  under  the  command  of  Loubois. 

Le  Sueur  was  the  first  to  arrive  in  the  vicinity  of  1730 
the  Natchez.  Not  expecting  an  attack,  they  were 
celebrating  festivities,  which  were  gladdened  by  the 
spoils  of  the  French.  Mad  with  triumph,  and  exulting 
in  their  success,  on  the  evening  of  the  twenty-eighth 
of  January,  they  gave  themselves  up  to  sleep,  after  the 
careless  manner  of  the  wilderness.  On  the  following 
morning,  at  daybreak,  the  Choctas  broke  upon  their 
villages,  liberated  their  captives,  and,  losing  but  two 
of  their  own  men,  brought  off  sixty  scalps,  with  eigh- 
teen prisoners. 

On  the  eighth  of  February,  Loubois  arrived,  and  1730 
completed  the  victory.     Of  the  Natchez,  some  fled  to 
neighboring  tribes  for   shelter;  the  remainder  of  the 
nation  crossed  the  Mississippi  to  the  vicinity  of  Natch- 
itoches.    They  were  pursued,  and,  partly  by  stratagem,  1731 
partly  1r$  force,  their  place  of  refuge  was  taken.     Some 
fled  still  farther  to  the  west.     Of  the  scattered  rem- 
nants,   some   remained   with   the    Chickasas ;    others 
found  a  shelter  among  the  Muskhogees.     The  Great  1732 
Sun    and   more    than    four    hundred    prisoners   were 
shipped  to  Hispaniola,  and  sold  as  slaves. 

Thus  perished  the  nation  of  the  Natchez.     Their 


364      THE  CROWN  RESUMES   THE  GOVERNMENT   OF  LOUISIANA, 

CHAP,  peculiar  language, — which  has  been  still  preserved  by 

the  descendants  of  the  fugitives,  and  is,  perhaps,  now 

on  the  point  of  expiring, — their  worship,  their  division 
into  nobles  and  plebeians,  their  bloody  funereal  rites, 
— invite  conjecture,  and  yet  so  nearly  resemble  in  char- 
racter  the  distinctions  of  other  tribes,  that  they  do  but 
irritate,  without  satisfying,  curiosity. 

The  cost  of  defending  Louisiana  exceeding  the  re- 
turns from  its  commerce  and  from  grants  of  land,  the 
company  of  the  Indies,  seeking  wealth  by  conquests  or 
1732  traffic  on  the  coast  of  Guinea  and  Hindostan,  solicited 
leave  to  surrender  the  Mississippi  wilderness ;  and,  on 
the  tenth  of  April,  1 732,  the  jurisdiction  and  control 
over  its  commerce  reverted  to  the  crown  of  France. 
The  company  had  held  possession  of  Louisiana  for 
fourteen  years,  which  were  its  only  years  of  compara- 
tive prosperity.  The  early  extravagant  hopes  had  not 
subsided  till  emigrants  had  reached  its  soil ;  and  the 
emigrants,  being  once  established,  took  care  of  them- 
selves. In  1735,  the  Canadian  Bienville  reappeared 
to  assume  the  command  for  the  king. 

It  was  the  first  object  of  the  crown  to  establish  its 
supremacy  throughout  the  borders  of  Louisiana.  The 
Chickasas  were  the  dreaded  enemies  of  France;  it 
was  they  who  had  hurried  the  Natchez  to  bloodshed 
and  destruction ;  it  was  they  whose  cedar  barks,  shoot- 
ing boldly  into  the  Mississippi,  interrupted  the  connec- 
tion between  Kaskaskia  and  New  Orleans.  Thus  they 
maintained  their  savage  independence,  and  weakened 
by  dividing  the  French  empire.  No  settlements  on 
the  eastern  bank  of  the  Mississippi  were  safe ;  and 
from  Natchez,  or  even  from  the  vicinity  of  New  Or- 
leans, to  Kaskaskia,  none  existed.  The  English 
traders  from  Carolina  were,  moreover,  welcomed  to 


THE   CROWN    RESUMES  THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  LOUISIANA.      365 

their  villages.     Nay,  more:  resolute  in  their  hatred,  CHAP. 

XXIII 

they  had  even  endeavored  to  debauch  the  affections  - — ^ 
of  the  Illinois,  and  to  extirpate  French  dominion  from 
the  west.  But  the  tawny  envoys  from  the  north  de- 
scended to  New  Orleans,  and  presented  the  pipe  of 
friendship.  "This,"  said  Chicago  to  Perrier,  as  he 
concluded  an  offensive  and  defensive  alliance;  "this  is 
the  pipe  of  peace  or  war.  You  have  but  to  speak,  and 
our  braves  will  strike  the  nations  that  are  your  foes." 

To  secure  the  eastern  valley  of  the  Mississippi,  it  1730 
was  necessary  to  reduce  the  Chickasas ;  and  nearly 
two  years  were  devoted  to  preparations  for  the  enter- 
prise. At  last,  in  1736,  the  whole  force  of  the  colony 
at  the  south,  with  D'Artaguette  and  troops  from  his 
command  in  Illinois,  and  probably  from  the  Wabash, 
was  directed  to  meet,  on  the  tenth  of  May,  in  the  land 
of  the  Chickasas.  The  government  of  France  had 
itself  given  directions  for  the  invasion,  and  its  eye  was 
turned  anxiously  to  watch  the  issue  of  the  strife. 

From  New  Orleans  the  little  fleet  of  thirty  boats  1736 
and  as  many  pirogues  departed  for  Fort  Conde  at  Mo- 
bile, which  it  did  not  leave  till  the  fourth  of  April.  In 
sixteen  days,  it  ascended  the  river  to  Tombecbee,  a 
fort  which  an  advance  party  had  constructed  on  the  west 
bank  of  the  river,  two  hundred  and  fifty  miles  above 
the  bay.  Of  the  men  employed  in  its  construction, 
some  had  attempted  to  escape,  and  enjoy  the  liberty 
of  the  wilderness :  in  the  wilds  of  Alabama,  a  court 
martial  sentenced  them  to  death,  and  they  were  shot. 

The  Choctas,  lured  by  gifts  of  merchandise,  and  high 
rewards  for  every  scalp,  gathered  at  Fort  Tombecbee 
to  aid  Bienville.  Of  these  red  auxiliaries  the  number 
was  about  twelve  hundred ;  and  the  whole  party  slowly 
sounded  its  way  up  the  windings  of  the  Tombecbee  4-25. 


366  WAR   OF   FRANCE   WITH   THE    CHICKASAS. 

CHAP,  to  the  point  where  Cotton  Gin  Port  now  stands,  and 
--  '  which  was  but  about  twenty-one  miles  south-east  of 


lne  great  village  of  the  Chickasas.    There  the  artillery 
was  deposited  in  a  temporary  fortification;    and  the 

i?8  '  solitudes  of  the  quiet  forests  and  blooming  prairies  be- 
tween the  head-sources  of  the  Tombecbee  and  the 
Tallahatchie  were  disturbed  by  the  march  of  the  army 
towards  the  long  house  of  their  enemy.  After  the 

May  manner  of  Indian  warfare,  they  encamped,  on  the 
evening  of  the  twenty-fifth  of  May,  at  the  distance  of  a 
league  from  the  village.  In  the  morning,  before  day, 
they  advanced  to  surprise  the  Chickasas.  In  vain. 
The  brave  warriors,  whom  they  had  come  to  destroy,* 
were  on  the  watch  ;  their  intrenchments  were  strong  ; 
English  flags  waved  over  their  fort  ;  English  traders 
had  assisted  them  in  preparing  defence.  Twice,  during 
the  day,  an  attempt  was  made  to  storm  their  log  cita- 
del ;  and  twice  the  French  were  repelled,  with  a  loss 
of  thirty  killed,  of  whom  four  were  officers.  The  next 
day  saw  skirmishes  between  parties  of  Choctas  and 
Chickasas.  On  the  twenty-ninth,  the  final  retreat  be- 
gan ;  on  the  thirty-first  of  May,  Bienville  dismissed  the 
Choctas,  having  satisfied  them  with  presents,  and, 
throwing  his  cannon  into  the  Tombecbee,  his  party 
ingloriously  floated  down  the  river.  In  the  last  days 
of  June,  he  landed  on  the  banks  of  the  Bayou  St.  John. 

Lett.Ed,  But  where  was  D'Artaguette,  the  brave  commander 
in  the  Illinois,  the  pride  of  the  flower  of  Canada?  And 
where  was  the  gallant  Vincennes,  whose  name,  in  hon- 
or of  the  founder  of  a  state,  is  borne  by  the  oldest  set- 
tlement of  Indiana  ? 

The  young  D'Artaguette  had  already  gained  glory 
in  tne  war  again§t  the  Natchez,  braving  death  under 
every  form.  Advanced  to  the  command  in  the  Illinois,, 


WAR   OF   FRANCE    WITH    THE    CHICKASAS.  367 

he  obeyed  the  summons  of  Bienville  ;  and,  with  an  CHAP 
army  of  about  fifty  French  soldiers  and  more  than  a  -  ~ 
thousand  red  men,  accompanied  by  Father  Senat,  and 
by  the  Canadian  De  Vincennes,  the  careful  hero  stole 
cautiously  and  unobserved  into  the  country  of  the 
Chickasas,  and,  on  the  evening  before  the  appointed 
day,  encamped  near  the  rendezvous  among  the  sources 
of  the  Yalabusha.  But  the  expected  army  from  below 
did  not  arrive.  For  ten  days  he  retained  his  impa- 
tient allies  in  the  vicinity  of  their  enemy;  at  last,  as 
they  menaced  desertion,  he  consented  to  an  attack. 
His  measures  were  wisely  arranged.  One  fort  was 
carried,  and  the  Chickasas  driven  from  the  cabins 
which  it  protected  ;  at  the  second,  the  intrepid  youth 
was  equally  successful  ;  on  attacking  the  third  fort,  he 
received  one  wound,  and  then  another,  and,  in  the 
moment  of  victory,  was  disabled.  The  red  men  from 
Illinois,  dismayed  at  the  check,  fled  precipitately.  Voi- 
sin,  a  lad  of  but  sixteen  years  old,  conducted  the  re- 
treat, having  the  enemy  at  his  heels  for  five-and-twenty 
leagues,  marching  forty-five  leagues  without  food,  while 
his  men  carried  with  them  such  of  the  wounded  as 
could  bear  the  fatigue.  The  unhappy  D'Artaguette 
lay  weltering  in  his  blood,  and  by  his  side  fell  others 
of  his  bravest  troops.  The  Jesuit  Senat  might  have 
fled  :  he  remained  to  receive  the  last  sigh  of  the 
wounded,  regardless  of  danger^  mindful  only  of  duty. 
Vincennes,  too,  the  Canadian,  refused  to  fly,  and 
shared  the  captivity  of  his  gallant  leader.  After  the 
Indian  custom,  their  wounds  were  stanched;  tney 
were  received  into  the  cabins  of  the  Chickasas,  and 
feasted  bountifully.  At  last,  when  Bienville  had  re- 
treated,  the  Chickasas  brought  the  captives  into  a 
field;  and,  while  one  was  spared  to  relate  the  deed, 


z 


368        CONDITION    OF    LOUISIANA   AT   THE    END   OF   THE    WAR 

CHAP,  the  adventurous  D'Artaguette ;  the  faithful  Senat,  true 

XXIII 

"  to  his  mission ;  Vincennes,  whose  name  will  be  perpet- 

1736.  uated  as  long  as  the  Wabash  shall  flow  by  the  dwell- 
ings of  civilized  man; — these,  with  the  rest  of  the  cap- 
tives, were  bound  to  the  stake;  and  neither  valor  nor 
piety  could  save  them  from  death  by  slow  torments 
and  fire. — Such  is  the  early  history  of  Mississippi. 
Ill  success  did  but  increase  the  disposition  to  con- 

1737  tinue  the  war.  To  advance  the  colony,  a  royal  edict 
permitted  a  ten  years'  freedom  of  commerce  between 
the  West  India  Islands  and  Louisiana ;  while  a  new 
expedition  against  the  Chickasas,  receiving  aid  not 
from  Illinois  only,  but  even  from  Montreal  and  Que- 

1739.  bee,  and  from  France,  made  its  rendezvous  in  Arkan- 
sas, on  the  St.  Francis  River.  In  the  last  of  June,  the 
whole  army,  composed  of  twelve  hundred  whites,  and 
twice  that  number  of  red  and  black  men,  took  up  its 
quarters  in  Fort  Assumption,  on  the  bluff  of  Memphis. 
But  autumn  wasted  itself  in  languor  and  weariness  of 
spirit;  the  recruits  from  France,  the  Canadians,  sunk 
under  the  climate.  When,  in  March,  1740,  a  small 
detachment  proceeded  towards  the  Chickasa  country, 
they  were  met  by  messengers,  who  supplicated  for 
peace ;  and  Bienville  gladly  accepted  the  calumet. 
The  fort  at  Memphis  was  razed ;  the  troops  from  Illi- 
nois and  from  Canada  drew  back ;  the  fort  on  the  St. 
Francis  was  dismantled ;  and  Bienville  returned,  to 
conceal  his  shame  under  false  pretences.  Peace,  it 
was  said,  was  established  between  France  and  the 
Chickasas ;  but  the  settlements  between  Lower  Lou- 
isiana and  the  Illinois  were  interrupted.  From  Kas- 
kaskia  to  Baton  Rouge  was  a  wilderness ;  the  Chick- 
asas remained  the  undoubted  lords  of  their  country; 
and,  in  the  great  expanse  of  territory  claimed  by 


PROGRESS   OF   THE   ANGLO-AMERICAN   COLONiES.  369 

France,  the  jurisdiction  of  her   monarch   was  but   a  CHAP 
name.     The  French  were  kept  out  of  the  country  of  ~~~ 
the  Chickasas  by  that  nation  itself;  red  men  protected 
the  English  settlements  on  the  west. 

Such  was  Louisiana  more  than  a  half  century  after 
the  first  attempt  at  colonization  by  La  Salle.  Its  pop- 
ulation may  have  been  five  thousand  whites  and  half 
that  number  of  blacks.  Louis  XIV.  had  fostered  it 
with  pride  and  liberal  expenditures ;  an  opulent  mer- 
chant,* famed  for  his  successful  enterprise,  assumed  its 
direction ;  the  company  of  the  Mississippi,  aided  by 
boundless  but  transient  credit,  had  made  it  the  founda- 
tion of  their  hopes ;  and,  again,  Fleury  and  Louis  XV. 
had  sought  to  advance  its  fortunes.  Priests  and  friars, 
dispersed  through  nations,  from  Biloxi  to  the  Dahcotas, 
propitiated  the  favor  of  the  savages.  But  still  the  val- 
ley of  the  Mississippi  was  nearly  a  wilderness.  All 
its  patrons — though  among  them  it  counted  kings  and 
ministers  of  state — had  not  accomplished  for  it,  in  half 
a  century,  a  tithe  of  the  prosperity  which,  within  the 
same  period,  sprung  naturally  from  the  benevolence 
of  William  Penn  to  the  peaceful  settlers  on  the  Del- 
aware. 

The  progress  of  the  Anglo-American  colonies  was 
advanced,  not  by  anticipating  strife  with  the  natives, 
but  by  the  progress  of  industry.  In  1738,  there  were 
built  in  Boston  forty-one  topsail  vessels,  burden  in  all 
six  thousand  three  hundred  and  twenty-four  tons.  In 
its  vicinity  the  increase  of  population  justified  the  fre- 
quent division  of  townships;  and  the  husbandmen  of  the 
West  Farms  in  Cambridge,  as  if  anticipating  for  their 
posterity  a  place  in  the  world's  annals,  claimed  also  to  i7I2 
be  organized  separately,  as  the  village  of  Lexington. 
Peace  on  the  eastern  frontier  revived  the  youthful 
VOL.  in.  47 


370  PROGRESS   OF  THE    ANGLO-AMERICAN    COLONIES. 

CHAP  maritime  enterprise  of  Maine,  and  its  settlements  be- 
^~  gan  to  obtain  a  fixed  prosperity.  The  French,  just 
before  occupying  Crown  Point,  pitched  their  tents  on 
the  opposite  eastern  shore,  in  the  township  of  Addison. 
But  already,  in  1724,  the  government  of  Massachusetts 
had  established  Fort  Dummer,  on  the  site  of  Brattle- 
borough  ;  and  thus,  one  hundred  and  fifteen  years  after 
the  inroad  of  Champlain,  a  settlement  of  civilized  man 
was  made  in  Vermont.  That  Fort  Dummer  was  with- 
in the  limits  of  Massachusetts,  was  not  questioned  by 
the  French ;  for  the  fort  at  Saybrook,  according  to  the 
French  rule,  gave  to  England  the  whole  basin  of  the 
river.  Of  Connecticut  the  swarming  population  spread 
over  all  its  soil,  and  occupied  even  its  hills ;  for  its 
whole  extent  was  protected  against  the  desolating  in- 
roads of  savages.  The  selfish  policy  of  its  governors 
and  its  royalist  party  delayed  the  increase  of  New  York. 
Pennsylvania,  as  the  land  of  promise,  was  still  the  ref- 
uge of  the  oppressed.  We  shall  "soon  have  a  German 
1729  c°l°ny>"  wrote  Logan,  "so  many  thousands  of  Pala- 
tines are  already  in  the  country."  "  We  are  also  very 
much  surprised  at  the  vast  crowds  of  people  pouring 
in  upon  us  from  the  north  of  Ireland.  Both  these  sorts 
sit  frequently  down  on  any  spot  of  vacant  land.  They 
say  the  proprietary  invited  people  to  come  and  settle 
his  country.  Both  pretend  they  would  pay,  but  not 
one  in  twenty  has  any  thing  to  pay  with."  Nor  did 
the  south-west  range  of  mountains,  from  the  James  to 
the  Potomac,  fail  to  become  occupied  by  emigrants, 
and  enlivened  by  county  courts ;  and,  in  1 732,  the 
valley  of  Virginia  received  white  inhabitants.  West 
of  the  Alleghany  there  were  no  European  settlements, 
except  as  traders,  especially  from  Carolina,  had  ven- 
tured among  the  Indians,  and,  becoming  wild  like  the. 


PROGRESS  OF  POPULATION  AND  SETTLEMENTS.       37  J 

men  with  whom  they  trafficked,  had  established  their  CHAP. 
houses  among  the  Cherokees,  the  Muskhogees,  and  the 
Chickasas.  There  existed  no  settlement,  even  of  Car- 
olina, on  streams  that  flow  westward.  The  abodes  of 
civilized  man  reached  scarcely  a  hundred  miles  from 
the  Atlantic ;  the  more  remote  ones  were  made  by 
herdsmen,  who  pastured  beeves  upon  canes  and  natu- 
ral grasses;  and  the  cattle,  hardly  kept  from  running 
wild,  were  now  and  then  rallied  at  central  "Cowpens." 
Thus,  unheeded  of  the  savage,  herdsmen  were  the  pi- 
oneers of  colonization  in  the  wilderness  of  Carolina. 
Philanthropy  opened  the  way  beyond  the  Savannah. 
The  growth  of  the  colonies  excited  astonishment  in 
England ;  and  a  British  poet  pointed  with  admiration 
across  the  Atlantic:  — 

"Lo!  swarming  southward  on  rejoicing  suns, 
Gay  colonies  extend, — the  calm  retreat 
Of  undeserved  distress,  the  better  home 
Of  those  whom  bigots  chase  from  foreign  lands. 
Not  built  on  rapine,  servitude,  and  woe, 
But  bound  by  social  freedom,  firm  they  rise." 

While  the  Palatinate  poured  forth  its  sons  from  their 
devastated  fields ;  while  the  Scotch,  who  had  made  a 
sojourn  in  Ireland,  abandoned  the  culture  of  lands 
where  they  were  but  tenants,  and,  crowding  to  Ameri- 
ca, established  themselves  as  freeholders  in  almost  ev- 
ery part  of  the  United  States,  from  New  Hampshire  to 
Carolina, — the  progress  of  colonization  was  mainly 
due  to  the  rapid  increase  of  the  descendants  of  former 
settlers.  At  the  peace  of  Utrecht,  the  inhabitants  in 
all  the  colonies  could  not  have  been  far  from  four  hun- 
dred thousand.  Before  peace  was  again  broken,  they 
had  grown  to  be  not  far  from  eight  hundred  thousand. 
Happy  America!  to  which.  Providence  gave  the  tran- 


372  PROGRESS   OF  THE    ANGLO-AMERICAN    COLONIES. 

CHAP,  quillity  necessary  for  her  growth,  as  well  as  the  trials 
—  —  •"  which  were  to  discipline  her  for  action. 

The  effects  of  the  American  system  of  social  free- 
dom were  best  exhibited  in  the  colonies  which  'ap- 
proached   the    most   nearly    to   independence.     More 
Dum.    than  a  century  ago,  "  the  charter  governments  were 
celebrated  for  their  excellent  laws  and  mild  adminis- 


ai. 

tration;  for  the  security  of  liberty  and  property;  for 

the  encouragement  of  virtue,  and  suppression  of  vice  ; 
for  promoting  letters  by  erecting  free  schools  and  col- 
leges." Among  the  most  distinguished  sons  of  Ireland 
of  that  day  was  George  Berkeley,  who,  like  Penn  and 
Locke,  garnered  up  his  hopes  for  humanity  in  Ameri- 
ca. Versed  in  ancient  learning,  exact  science,  and 
modern  literature  ;  disciplined  by  polished  society,  by 
travel,  and  reflection  ;  he  united  innocence,  humility, 
and  extensive  knowledge,  with  the  sagacity  and  confi- 
dence of  intuitive  reason.  Adverse  factions  agreed  in 
ascribing  to  him  "every  virtue  under  heaven."  Be- 
loved and  cherished  by  those  who  were  the  pride  of 
English  letters  and  society,  favored  with  unsolicited 
dignities  and  revenues,  his  mind  asked,  for  its  happi- 
ness, not  fortune  or  preferment,  but  a  real  progress  in 
knowledge  ;  so  that  he  dedicated  his  age,  as  well  as 
his  early  years  —  the  later  growth,  as  well  as  the  first 
fruits  —  at  the  altar  of  truth.  The  material  tendencies 
of  the  age  in  which  he  lived  were  hateful  to  his  purity 
of  sentiment;  and,  having  a  mind  kindred  with  Plato 
and  the  Alexandrine  philosophers,  with  Barclay  and 
Malebranche,  he  held  that  the  external  world  was 
wholly  subordinate  to  intelligence  ;  that  of  spirits 
alone  true  existence  can  be  predicated.  He  did  riot 
distrust  the  senses,  being  rather  a  close  and  exact  ob- 
server of  their  powers,  and  finely  discriminating  be- 


SCHOOLS  AND  COLLEGES  IN  THE  COLONIES.   BERKELEY.   373 

tween  impressions  made  on  them  and  the  inferences  CHAP 
of  reason.  Far  from  being  skeptical,  he  sought  to  ^  — 
give  to  faith  the  highest  certainty,  by  deriving  all  gu^" 
knowledge  from  absolutely  perfect  intelligence  —  from 
God.  If  he  could  but  "expel  matter  out  of  nature;" 
il,  in  a  materialist  age,  he  could  establish  the  suprema- 
cy  of  spirit  as  the  sole  creative  power  and  active  being,  we0y.k88 
—  then  would  the  slavish  or  corrupt  theories  of  Epicu- 
rus and  of  Hobbes  be  cut  up  by  the  roots  and  totally 
extirpated.  Thus  he  sought  "  gently  to  unbind  the 
ligaments  which  chain  the  soul  to  the  earth,  and  to  as- 
sist her  flight  upwards  towards  the  sovereign  good." 
For  the  application  of  such  views,  Europe  of  the  eigh- 
teenth century  offered  no  theatre.  He  longed  to  di- 
vest himself  of  European  dignities  ;  and,  regarding 
"the  well-being  of  all  men  of  all  nations"  as  the  de- 
sign in  which  the  actions  of  each  individual  should 
concur,  he  repaired  to  the  new  hemisphere  to  found  a 
university.  The  Island  of  Bermuda,  so  famed  in  Eu- 
rope for  its  delicious  climate,  at  first  selected  as  its 
site,  was  abandoned  for  a  spot  within  our  America,  of 
which  he  was  for  more  than  two  years  a  resident. 
But  opinion  in  England  did  not  favor  his  design. 
"From  the  labor  and  luxury  of  the  plantations,"  it 
was  said,  "  great  advantages  may  ensue  to  the  mother 


country;  yet  the  advancement  of  literature,  and  the 
improvement  in  arts  and  sciences  in  our  American  col- 
onies, can  never  be  of  any  service  to  the  British  state." 
Such  seems  to  have  been  the  opinion  of  Sir  Robert 
Walpole.  The  funds  that  had  been  regarded  as 
pledged  to  the  university,  —  in  which  Indians  were  to 
be  (rained  in  wisdom,  missionaries  educated  for  works 
of  good,  science  and  truth  cherished,  pursued,  and  dis- 
seminated, —  were  diverted  to  pay  the  dowry  of  the 


374  PROGRESS    OF   THE   ANGLO-AMERICAN    COLONIES. 

CHAP  princess  royal.  Disappointed,  yet  not  irritated,  Berke- 
— ^  ley  returned  to  Europe,  to  endow  a  library  in  Rhode 
Island ;  to  cherish  the  interests  of  Harvard ;  to  gain  a 
right  to  be  gratefully  remembered  at  New  Haven  ;  to 
encourage  the  foundation  of  a  college  at  New  York. 
Advanced  to  a  bishopric,  the  heart  of  the  liberal  and 
catholic  prelate  was  in  America.  He  loved  the  sim- 
plicity and  gentle  virtues  which  its  villages  illustrated ; 
and,  as  he  looked  into  futurity,  the  ardor  of  his  benev- 
olence dictated  his  prophecy — 

u  In  happy  climes,  the  seat  of  innocence, 

Where  nature  guides,  and  virtue  rules ; 
Where  men  shall  not  \mpose  for  truth  and  sense 
The  pedantry  of  courts  and  schools  ; — 

tt  There  shall  be  sung  another  golden  age,— 

The  rise  of  empire  and  of  arts, — 
The  good  and  great  inspiring  epic  rage — 
The  wisest  heads  and  noblest  hearts. 

"  Not  such  as  Europe  breeds  in  her  decay ; 

Such  as  she  bred  when  fresh  and  young, 
When  heavenly  flame  did  animate  her  clay, 
By  future  poets  shall  be  sung. 

"Westward  the  course  of  empire  takes  its  way. 

The  four  first  acts  already  past, 
A  fifth  shall  close  the  drama  with  the  day. 
Time's  noblest  offspring  is  the  last." 

To  free  schools  and  colleges  the  periodical  press 
had  been  added,  and  newspapers  began  their  office 
in  America  as  the  ministers  to  curiosity  and  the  guides 
and  organs  of  opinion.  On  the  twenty-fourth  day  of 
April,  in  1704,  the  Boston  News-Letter,  the  first  ever 
published  on  the  western  continent,  saw  the  light  in 
the  metropolis  of  New  England.  In  1719,  it  obtained 
a  rival  at  Boston,  and  was  imitated  at  Philadelphia 


THE   AMERICAN    PERIODICAL    PRESS.      FRANKLIN  375 

In  1740,  the  number  of  newspapers  in  the  English  CHAP 

yv^vlll.. 

colonies  on  the  continent  had  increased  to  eleven,  of  — ^ 
which  one  appeared  in  South  Carolina,  one  in  Virginia, 
three  in  Pennsylvania, — one  of  them  being  in  German, 
— one  in  New  York,  and  the  remaining  five  in  Boston. 
The  sheet  at  first  used  was  but  of  the  foolscap  size ; 
and  but  one,  or  even  but  a  half  of  one,  was  issued 
weekly.  The  papers  sought  support  rather  by  mod- 
estly telling  the  news  of  the  day,  than  by  engaging 
in  conflicts ;  they  had  no  political  theories  to  enforce, 
no  revolutions  in  faith  to  hasten.  In  Boston,  indeed, 
where  the  pulpit  had  marshaled  Quakers  and  witches 
to  the  gallows,  one  newspaper,  the  New  England 
Courant,  the  fourth  American  periodical,  was  estab-  Aug. 
lished,  as  an  organ  of  independent  opinion,  by  James 
Franklin.  Its  temporary  success  was  advanced  by 
Benjamin,  his  brother  and  apprentice,  a  boy  of  fifteen, 
who  wrote  pieces  for  its  humble  columns,  worked  in 
composing  the  types,  as  well  as  in  printing  off  the 
sheets,  and  himself,  as  carrier,  distributed  the  papers  to 
the  customers.  The  little  sheet  satirized  hypocrisy, 
and  spoke  of  religious  knaves  as  of  all  knaves  the 
worst.  This  was  described  as  tending  "  to  abuse  the 
ministers  of  religion  in  a  manner  which  was  intolera- 
ble." "  I  can  well  remember,"  writes  Increase  Mather, 
then  more  than  fourscore  years  of  age,  "  when  the  civil 
government  would  have  taken  an  effectual  course  to 
suppress  such  a  cursed  libel."  In  July,  1722,  a  1733 
icsolve  passed  the  council,  appointing  a  censor  for 
the  press  of  James  Franklin ;  but  the  house  refused 
its  concurrence.  The  ministers  persevered  ;  and,  in 
January,  1723,  a  committee  of  inquiry  was  raised  by 
the  legislature.  Benjamin  Franklin,  being  examined, 
escaped  with  an  admonition ;  James,  the  publisher, 


376  PROGRESS   OF    THE   ANGLO-AMERICAN    COLONIES. 

CHAP,  refusing  to  discover  the  author  of  the  offence,  was  kept 

^•v—  in  jail  for  a  month ;  his  papor  was  censured  as  reflect- 
ing injuriously  on  the  reverend  ministers  of  the  gospel ; 
and,  by  vote  of  the  house  and  council,  he  was  forbid- 
den to  print  it,  "except  it  be  first  supervised." 

1723  Vexed  at  the  arbitrary  proceedings  of  the  assembly; 
willing  to  escape  from  a  town  where  good  people 
pointed  with  horror  at  his  freedom ;  indignant,  also,  at 
the  tyranny  of  a  brother,  who,  as  a  passionate  master, 
often  beat  his  apprentice, — Benjamin  Franklin,  then 

Oct  but  seventeen  years  old,  sailed  clandestinely  for  New 
York;  and,  finding  there  no  employment,  crossed  to 
Am  boy ;  went  on  foot  to  the  Delaware ;  for  want  of  a 
wind,  rowed  in  a  boat  from  Burlington  to  Philadelphia; 
and,  bearing  marks  of  his  labor  at  the  oar,  weary,  hun- 
gry, having  for  his  whole  stock  of  cash  a  single  dollar, 
the  runaway  apprentice — greatest  of  the  sons  of  New 
England  of  that  generation,  the  humble  pupil  of  the 
free  schools  of  Boston,  rich  in  the  boundless  hope  of 
youth  and  the  unconscious  power  of  genius,  which 
modesty  adorned — stepped  on  shore  to  seek  food,  oc- 
cupation, shelter,  and  fortune. 

On  the  deep  foundations  of  sobriety,  frugality,  and 
industry,  the  young  journeyman  built  his  fortunes  and 
fame ;  and  he  soon  came  to  have  a  printing-office  of 
his  own.  Toiling  early  and  late,  with  his  own  hands 
he  set  types  and  worked  at  the  press ;  with  his  own 
hands  would  trundle  to  the  office  in  a  wheelbarrow  the 
reams  of  paper  which  he  was  to  use.  His  ingenuity 
was  such,  he  could  form  letters,  make  types  and  wood 
cuts,  and  engrave  vignettes  in  copper.  The  assembly 
of  Pennsylvania  respected  his  merit,  and  chose  him 
its  printer.  He  planned  a  newspaper  ;  and,  when  he 
became  its  proprietor  and  editor,  he  fearlessly  defend- 


BENJAMIN    FRANKLIN.  377 

ed  absolute  freedom  of  thought  and  speech,  and  the  CHAP 
inalienable  power  of  the  people.  Desirous  of  ad-  -^ — 
vancing  education,  he  proposed  improvements  in  the 
schools  of  Philadelphia;  he  invented  the  system  of 
subscription  libraries,  and  laid  the  foundation  of  one 
that  was  long  the  most  considerable  library  in  Amer- 
ica; he  suggested  the  establishment  of  an  academy, 
which  has  ripened  into  a  university;  he  saw  the  bene- 
fit of  concert  in  the  pursuit  of  science,  and  gathered  a 
philosophical  society  for  its  advancement.  The  intel- 
ligent and  highly  cultivated  Logan  bore  testimony  to 
his  merits  before  they  had  burst  upon  the  world  :  — 
"Our  most  ingenious  printer  has  the-  clearest  under- 
standing, with  extreme  modesty,  He  is  certainly  an 
extraordinary  man," — "of  a  singularly  good  judgment, 
but  of  equal  modesty," — "excellent,  yet  humble." 
"  Do  not  imagine,"  he  adds,  "  that  I  overdo  in  my 
character  of  Benjamin  Franklin,  for  I  am  rather  short 
in  it."  When  the  scientific  world  began  to  investigate 
the  •  wonders  of  electricity,  Franklin  excelled  all  ob- 
servers in  the  marvellous  simplicity  and  lucid  exposi- 
tion of  his  experiments,  and  in  the  admirable  sagacity 
with  which  he  elicited  from  them  the  laws  which  they 
illustrated.  It  was  he  who  first  suggested  the  expla- 
nation of  thunder-gusts  and  the  northern  lights  on 
electrical  principles,  and,  in  the  summer  of  1 752,  going  1749 
out  into  the  fields,  with  no  instrument  but  a  kite,  no 
companion  but  his  son,  established  his  theory  by  ob- 
taining a  line  of  connection  with  a  thunder-cloud.  Nor 
did  he  cease  till  he  had  made  the  lightning  a  house- 
hold pastime,  taught  his  family  to  catch  the  subtile 
fluid  in  its  inconceivably  rapid  leaps  between  the 
earth  and  the  sky,  and  compelled  it  to  give  warning 
of  its  passage  by  the  harmless  ringing  of  bells. 
VOL.  in.  48 


378  PROGRESS   OF   THE   ANGLO-AMERICAN   COLONIES 

CHAP.  With  placid  tranquillity,  Benjamin  Franklin  looked 
— ~  quietly  and  deeply  into  the  secrets  of  nature.  His 
clear  understanding  was  never  perverted  by  passion, 
or  corrupted  by  the  pride  of  theory.  The  son  of  a 
rigid  Calvinist,  the  grandson  of  a  tolerant  Quaker,  he 
had  from  boyhood  been  familiar  not  only  with  theologi- 
cal subtilties,  but  with  a  catholic  respect  for  freedom 
of  mind.  Skeptical  of  tradition  as  the  basis  of  faith, 
he  respected  reason,  rather  than  authority;  and,  after 
a  momentary  lapse  into  fatalism,  escaping  from  the 
mazes  of  fixed  decrees  and  free  will,  he  gained,  with 
increasing  years,  an  increasing  trust  in  the  overruling 
providence  of  God.  Adhering  to  none  "of  all  the  re- 
ligions" in  the  colonies,  he  yet  devoutly,  though  with- 
out form,  adhered  to  religion.  But  though  famous  as 
a  disputant,  and  having  a  natural  aptitude  for  meta 
physics,  he  obeyed  the  tendency  of  his  age,  and  sought 
by  observation  to  win  an  insight  into  the  mysteries  of 
being.  Loving  truth,  without  prejudice  and  without 
bias,  he  discerned  intuitively  the  identity  of  the  laws 
of  nature  with  those  of  which  humanity  is  conscious ; 
so  that  his  mind  was  like  a  mirror,  in  which  the  uni- 
verse, as  it  reflected  itself,  revealed  her  laws.  He  was 
free  from  mysticism,  even  to  a  fault.  His  morality, 
repudiating  ascetic  severities,  and  the  system  which 
enjoins  them,  was  indulgent  to  appetites  of  which  he 
abhorred  the  sway;  but  his  affections  were  of  a  calm 
intensity ;  in  all  his  career,  the  love  of  man  gained  the 
mastery  over  personal  interest.  He  had  not  the  imagi- 
nation which  inspires  the  bard  or  kindles  the  orator ; 
but  an  exquisite  propriety,  parsimonious  of  ornament, 
gave  ease  of  expression  and  graceful  simplicity  even  to 
his  most  careless  writings.  In  life,  also,  his  tastes 
were  delicate.  Indifferent  to  the  pleasures  of  the 


BEMAM1N    FRANKLIN.  ,  379 

table,  he  relished  the  delights  of  music  and  harmony,  CHAP 
of  which  he  enlarged  the  instruments.  His  blandness  ^^~ 
of  temper,  his  modesty,  the  benignity  of  his  manners, 
made  him  the  favorite  of  intelligent  society ;  and,  with 
healthy  cheerfulness,  he  derived  pleasure  from  books, 
from  philosophy,  from  conversation, — now  calmly  ad- 
ministering consolation  to  the  sorrower,  now  indulging 
in  the  expression  of  light-hearted  gayety.  In  his  in- 
tercourse, the  universality  of  his  perceptions  bore,  per- 
haps, the  character  of  humor;  but,  while  he  clearly 
discerned  the  contrast  between  the  grandeur  of  the 
universe  and  the  feebleness  of  man,  a  serene  benevo- 
lence saved  him  from  contempt  of  his  race,  or  disgust 
at  its  toils.  To  superficial  observers,  he  might  have 
seemed  as  an  alien  from  speculative  truth,  limiting 
himself  to  the  world  of  the  senses ;  and  yet,  in  study, 
and  among  men,  his  mind  always  sought,  with  unaf- 
fected simplicity,  to  discover  and  apply  the  general 
principles  by  which  nature  and  affairs  are  controlled, — 
now  deducing  from  the  theory  of  caloric  improvements 
in  fireplaces  and  lanterns,  and  now  advancing  human 
freedom  by  firm  inductions  from  the  inalienable  rights 
of  man.  Never  professing  enthusiasm,  never  making 
a  parade  of  sentiment,  his  practical  wisdom  was  some- 
times mistaken  for  the  offspring  of  selfish  prudence; 
yet  his  hope  was  steadfast,  like  that  hope  which  rests 
on  the  Rock  of  Ages,  and  his  conduct  was  as  unerring 
as  though  the  light  that  led  him  was  a  light  from  heav- 
en. He  never  anticipated  action  by  theories  of  self- 
sacrificing  virtue  ;  and  yet,  in  the  moments  of  intense 
activity,  he,  from  the  highest  abodes  of  ideal  truth, 
brought  down  and  applied  to  the  affairs  of  life  the  sub- 
limest  principles  of  goodness,  as  noiselessly  and  unos- 
tentatiously as  became  the  man  who,  with  a  kite  and 


380         RELATIONS    OF   THE    COLONIES   WITH    GREAT   BRITAIN 

CHAP,  hempen   string,  drew  the  lightning   from   the   skies. 

He  separated  himself  so  little  from  his  age,  that  he  has 

been  called  the  representative  of  materialism  ;  and  yet, 
when  he  thought  on  religion,  his  mind  passed  beyond 
reliance  on  sects  to  faith  in  God ;  when  he  wrote  on 
politics,  he  founded  the  freedom  of  his  country  on  prin- 
ciples that  know  no  change ;  when  he  turned  an  ob- 
serving eye  on  nature,  he  passed  always  from  the  effect 
to  the  cause,  from  individual  appearances  to  universal 
laws ;  when  he  reflected  on  history,  his  philosophic 
mind  found  gladness  and  repose  in  the  clear  anticipa- 
tion of  the  progress  of  humanity. 

Thus  did  America,  by  its  increase  in  population,  and 
by  the  genius  of  its  sons,  ripen  for  independence.  But 
still  there  was  no  union :  neither  danger  from  abroad, 
nor  English  invasions  of  liberty,  had  as  yet  roused  the 
colonies  to  a  common  resistance.  Not  even  the  pro- 
posal to  abrogate  charters  could  excite  a  united  oppo- 
sition. Public  sentiment  in  America  so  little  respected 
the  proprietary  governments,  that,  in  1720,  the  three 
New  England  charter  governments  were  left  to  con- 
tend for  their  privileges  alone.  It  was  asserted,  on 
the  side  of  those  who  desired  to  merge  colonial  liber- 
ties in  the  royal  prerogative,  that  the  charter  govern- 
ments had  neglected  the  defence  of  the  country;  had 
exercised  power  arbitrarily;  had  disregarded  the  acts 
of  trade ;  had  made  laws  repugnant  to  English  legisla- 
tion; and,  most  dangerous  of  all,  by  fostering  the  num- 
bers and  wealth  of  their  inhabitants,  were  creating 
formidable  antagonists  to  English  industry,  and  nurs- 
ing a  disposition  to  rebellion. 

To  this  it  was  answered,  by  the  agent  for  Massa- 
chusetts, that  the  three  New  England  colonies  held 
their  charters  by  compact,  having  obtained  them  as  a 


THE  ABROGATION  OF  CHARTERS  MENACED.        381 

consideration  for  the  labor  of  those  who  redeemed  the  CHAP. 

wilderness  and  annexed  it  to  the  English  dominions;  

that,  if  the  planters  had  foreseen  that  their  privileges 
would  be  such  transitory  things,  they  never  would  have 
engaged  in  their  costly  and  hazardous  enterprise ;  that, 
but  for  them,  France  would  have  multiplied  its  settle- 
ments till  she  had  reigned  sole  mistress  of  North  Amer- 
ica; that,  far  from  neglecting  their  defence,  the  glori- 
ous deeds  of  their  soldiers,  if  they  must  not  shine  in 
British  annals,  would  consecrate  their  memory  in  their 
own  country,  and  there,  at  least,  transmit  their  fame 
to  the  latest  posterity;  that  the  charters  themselves 
contained  the  strongest  barriers  against  arbitrary  rule, 
in  the  annual  election  of  magistrates ;  that  the  viola- 
tions of  the  acts  of  navigation,  which  occurred  also  in 
every  seaport  in  England,  were  the  frauds  of  individu- 
als, not  the  fault  of  the  community ;  that,  in  the  exist- 
ing state  of  things,  all  the  officers  of  the  revenue  were 
appointed  by  the  crown,  and  all  breaches  of  the  acts 
of  trade  cognizable  only  in  the  court  of  admiralty; 
that  colonial  laws,  repugnant  to  those  of  England,  far 
from  effecting  a  forfeiture  of  the  charters,  were  of  them-  7and8 


selves,  by  act  of  parliament,  illegal,  null,  and  void ;  that  c.  «ii. 
the  colonies,  even  "if  it  were  possible  they  could  con- 
trive so  wild  and  rash  an  undertaking  as  to  rebel,"  would 
not  be  able  to  execute  their  purpose,  "  unless  they  could 
first  strengthen  themselves  by  a  confederacy  of  all  the 
parts ; "  that  the  crown  had  no  interest  to  resume  the 
charters,  since  it  could  derive  no  benefit  but  from  the 
trade  of  the  colonies,  and  the  nursery  of  trade  is  a 
free  government,  where  the  laws  are  sacred  ;  that  jus- 
tice absolutely  forbade  a  bill  of  attainder  against  the 
liberties  of  states ;  that  it  would  be  a  severity  without 
a  precedent,  if  a  people,  unsummoned  and  unheard, 


382        RELATIONS    OF    THE    COLONIES    WITH    GREAT    BRITAIN. 

CHAP,  should  in  one  day  be  deprived  of  all  the  valuable  priv- 

^ — '  ileges  which  they  and  their  fathers  had  enjoyed  for 
near  a  hundred  years.  Such  were  the  arguments 
urged  by  Jeremiah  Dummer,  a  native  of  New  Eng- 
land, who,  "in  the  scarcity  of  friends  to  those  govern- 
ments," gained  a  tongue  to  defend  the  liberties  of  his 
country.  Nor  was  it  then  known  that,  though  the 
charters  should  be  burned,  freedom  itself  would  rise 
again  from  their  ashes  in  forms  more  beautiful  than 
before.  But  at  that  time  the  bill  for  abrogating  them 
was  dropped ;  and  when,  in  1726,  the  charter  of  Mas- 
sachusetts was  explained,  it  was  done,  not  by  parlia- 
ment, but  by  the  act  of  the  king,  and  the  change 
was  held  to  require  the  assent  of  the  colony.  Nor  was 
liberty  only  curtailed ;  after  a  long  strife,  the  territory 
of  Massachusetts  was  unjustly  abridged  in  favor  of  the 
royal  government  of  New  Hampshire. 

These  controversies  produced  no  effect  beyond  New 
England.  The  post-office  had  no  political  influence. 
The  wars  with  the  savages  on  the  eastern  and  south- 
ern frontier  were  insulated.  The  relations  with  the 
Iroquois  had  a  greater  tendency  to  effect  concert ;  they 
interested  New  England  on  the  east ;  and,  at  a  con- 

1722.  gress  in  Albany,  Virginia,  as  well  as  Pennsylvania,  was 
represented  by  its  governor. 

The  necessity  of  joint  action,  for  purposes  of  de- 
fence, had  led  even  Spotswood,  of  Virginia,  to  suggest 

1711,  to  the  board  of  trade  that  "the  regulation  of  that 
assistance  should  not  be  left  to  the  precarious  humor 
of  an  assembly;"  and  he  invited  the  government  in 
England  "to  consider  some  more  proper  method  for 
rendering  it  effectual."  But  no  attempt  was  made 
from  England  to  tax  America.  It  is  true  that,  in  1728, 
the  profligate  Sir  William  Keith — once  the  governor 


Burhe>a 


WALPOLE    REJECTS    THE    SYSTEM    OF    TAXING    COLONIES.      383 

of  Pennsylvania,  and  afterwards,  for  selfish  purposes,  CHAP 

XXIIL 

a  fiery  patriot,  boisterous  for  liberty  and  property,  -  - 
meaning  a  new  issue  of  paper  money  —  submitted  to 
the  king  the  inquiry,  "  whether  the  duties  of  stamps 
upon  parchment  and  paper  in  England  may  not,  with 
good  reason,  be  extended  by  act  of  parliament  to  all 
the  American  plantations."  The  suggestion,  which. 
probably,  was  not  original  with  Keith,  met  with  no 
favor  from  the  commissioners  of  trade.  The  influence 
of  Sir  Robert  Walpole,  disinclined  by  character  to  eve- 
ry measure  of  violence,  and  seeking  to  conciliate  the 
colonies  by  his  measured  forbearance,  was  a  guaranty 
against  its  adoption.  "I  will  leave  the  taxing  of  the 
British  colonies"  —  such  are  the  words  attributed  to 
him  towards  the  close  of  his  ministry,  and  such,  cer- 
tainly, were  his  sentiments  —  "for  some  of  my  succes- 

Annual 

sors,  who  may  have  more  courage  than  1  have,  and  be 
less  a  friend  to  commerce  than  I  am.  It  has  been  a 
maxim  with  me,"  he  added,  "  during  my  administration, 
to  encourage  the  trade  of  the  American  colonies  to 
the  utmost  latitude  :  nay,  it  has  been  necessary  to  pass 
over  some  irregularities  in  their  trade  with  Europe  ; 
for,  by  encouraging  them  to  an  extensive,  growing 
foreign  commerce,  if  they  gain  five  hundred  thou- 
sand pounds,  I  am  convinced  that,  in  two  years  after- 
wards, full  two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  pounds  of 
this  gain  will  be  in  his  majesty's  exchequer,  by  the 
labor  and  produce  of  this  kingdom,  as  immense  quanti- 
ties of  every  kind  of  our  manufactures  go  thither  ;  and, 
as  they  increase  in  the  foreign  American  trade,  more 
of  our  produce  will  be  wanted.  This  is  taxing  them 
more  agreeably  to  their  own  constitution  and  laws." 
Tribute  was  therefore  levied  on  America  by  means 
of  its  consumption.  That  the  British  creditor  might 


384         RELATIONS   OF   THE    COLONIES   WITH    GREAT   BRITAIN. 

CHAP,  be  secure,  lands  in  the  plantations  were,  by  act  of  par- 

— v^  liament,  made  liable  for  debts.     Every  branch  of  con- 

n.^?°7.  sumption  was,  as  far  as  practicable,  secured  to  English 
manufacturers ;  every  form  of  competition  in  industry, 
in  the  heart  of  the  plantations,  was  discouraged  or  for- 
bidden. In  the  land  of  furs,  it  was  found  that  hats 
were  well  made :  the  London  company  of  hatters  re- 

ii  c.e<*j.  nionstrated ;  and  their  craft  was  protected  by  an  act 
forbidding  hats  to  be  transported  from  one  plantation 
to  another.  The  proprietors  of  English  iron  works 

1719.  were  jealous  of  American  industry;  and,  in  1719,  the 
house  of  commons  declared,  "that  the  erecting  of 
manufactories  in  the  colonies  tended  to  lessen  their 

RoMjs.  dependence  on  Great  Britain."  Under  pretence  of 
encouraging  the  importation  of  American  naval  stores, 
they  voted  a  clause  that  "none  in  the  plantations 

•on,  Hi",  should  manufacture  iron  wares  of  any  kind  whatsoev- 

88,  89. 

er;"  and  the  house  of  peers  added  a  prohibition  of 
every  "forge  going  by  water  for  making  bar  or  rod 
iron."  The  opposition  of  the  northern  colonies  de- 
feated the  bill.  Of  the  purpose,  which  was  never 
1728  abandoned,  the  mildly  conservative  Logan  plainly  saw 
the  tendency.  "Some  talk  of  an  act  of  parliament," 
he  observed,  in  1728,  "to  prohibit  our  making  bar 
iron,  even  for  our  own  use.  Scarce  any  thing  could 
more  effectually  alienate  the  minds  of  the  people  in 
these  parts,  and  shake  their  dependence  upon  Britain." 
After  the  peace  of  Utrecht,  the  English  continental 
colonies  grew  accustomed  to  a  humble  commerce  with 
the  islands  of  the  French  and  Dutch,  purchasing  of 
them  sugar,  rum,  and  molasses,  in  return  for  provis- 
ions, horses,  and  lumber.  The  British  sugar  colonies, 
always  eager  for  themselves  to  engage  in  contraband 
trade  with  the  Spanish  provinces,  demanded  of  parlia- 


TRIBUTE    LEVIED    BY    REGULATING    COMMERCE.  385 

ment  a  prohibition  of  all  intercourse  between  the  north-  CHAP. 

•*•  X.X.I1I. 

ern  colonies  and  any  tropical  islands  but  the  British.       *- — 

In  the  formation  of  the  colonial  system,  each  Euro- 
pean nation  valued  most  the  colonies  of  which  the 
products  least  interfered  with  its  own.  Jealous  of  the 
industry  of  New  England,  England  saw  with  exulta- 
tion the  increase  of  its  tropical  plantations.  It  was 
willing,  therefore,  to  check  the  north,  and  to  favor  the 
south.  Hence  permission  was  given  to  the  planters 
of  Carolina,  and  afterwards  of  Georgia,  to  ship  their 
rice  directly  to  any  port  in  Europe  south  of  Cape  Fin- 
isterre.  Hence  special  restrictions  on  colonial  maritime 
enterprise ;  so  that  when,  in  imitation  of  the  French 
policy,  the  act  of  navigation  was  modified,  and  liberty 
granted  for  carrying  sugar  from  the  British  sugar 
plantations  directly  to  foreign  markets,  ships  built  and 
ships  owned  in  the  American  plantations  were  exclu- 
ded from  the  privilege.  Hence,  also,  the  tropical  prod- 
ucts, especially  the  products  of  the  cane,  formed  the 
central  point  of  colonial  policy.  To  monopolize  sugar 
and  slaves — to  engross  the  culture  of  the  first,  and  the 
exclusive  traffic  in  the  second — became  the  cardinal 
hope  of  English  commercial  ambition. 

The  interests  of  the  northern  plantations  were  there- 
fore esteemed  subordinate  to  those  of  the  sugar  colo- 
nies; and,  after  two  years'  discussion,  an  act  of  par-  1733 
liament,  recognizing  the  prosperity  of  "the  sugar 
colonies  in  America  as  of  the  greatest  consequence  to 
the  trade  of  England,"  imposed  a  duty  of  ninepence 
on  every  gallon  of  rum,  sixpence  on  every  gallon  of 
molasses,  and  five  shillings  on  every  hundred  weight 
of  sugar,  imported  from  foreign  colonies  into  any  of 
the  British  plantations. 

Here  was  an  act  of  the  British  parliament,  to  be 
VOL.  in.  49 


is  Geo. 
II.  e. 

XXX. 


Memoirs 
c.  ii 


386         RELATIONS    OF  THE    COLONIES   WITH    GREAT  BRITAIN. 

CHAP,  executed  by  officers  of  royal  appointment,  levying  a 

XXIII.  .  . 

^^  tax  on  consumption  in  America.  Jn  .Lngland,  it  was 
afterwards  appealed  to  as  a  precedent;  in  America, 
the  sixpence  duty  on  molasses  had  all  the  effect  of  a 
prohibition,  and  led  only  to  clandestine  importations. 
Even  in  case  of  forfeitures,  nobody  appeared  to  de- 
mand  the  third  part  given  to  the  king  for  the  colo- 
ny. The  act  of  parliament  produced  no  revenue, 
and  appeared  to  be  no  more  than  a  regulation  of 
commerce,  a  new  development  of  the  colonial  system. 
The  enactment  had  its  motive  in  the  desire  to  con- 
firm the  monopoly  of  the  British  sugar  plantations, 
and,  so  long  as  it  brought  no  income  to  the  crown,  it 
was  complained  of  as  a  grievance,  but  not  resisted  as 
a  tax.  Thus  the  colonial  system  subjected  the  trade 
of  the  northern  colonies  to  that  of  the  West  Indies, 
with  the  design  of  promoting  the  interest  of  England. 
But  here  a  new  difficulty  arose.  The  commercial  de- 
pendence on  the  metropolis  kept  the  colonies  in  debt 
to  England,  and  the  indebtment  increased  as  the  mer- 
cantile system  was  rigidly  enforced. 

It  is  the  nature  of  a  new  country  to  desire  credit, — 
to  submit  even  to  extortion  and  expedients,  rather  than 
renounce  its  use.  Where  nature  invited  to  the  easy 
and  rapid  development  of  its  resources,  hope  saw  the 
opportunity  of  golden  advantages,  if  credit  could  be  ob- 
tained ;  and,  in  the  want  of  it,  an  eager  cupidity  was 
ever  fruitful  in  devices  that  might  be  employed  in  its 
stead.  The  condition  of  a  young  country,  soliciting 
labor,  but  not  yet  enriched  by  the  results  of  labor ; 
the  impediments  to  progress  consequent  on  colonial 
dependence ;  the  influence  of  men  of  business  on 
legislation, — combined  to  bring  about  extraordinary 
results,  which  nothing  but  the  simplicity  of  colonial 


THE    COLONIAL    CREDIT    SYSTEM  387 

life,  and  purity  of  colonial  morals,  could  have  rendered  ^^^ 

tolerable.     The  constant  state  of  debt  to  the  mother  ~ 

country  created  a  demand  for  remittances;  so  that 
specie  disappeared.  America  was  left  without  a  cur- 
rency: she  was  incapable  of  the  voluntary  self-denial 
requisite  to  recover  a  specie  currency  from  commerce 
with  England;  could  adopt  no  counteracting  policy; 
and  was  debarred  from  such  traffic  as  would  have 
famished  a  supply  from  other  nations.  The  conse- 
quence was,  a  policy  which  the  history  of  the  world 
had  never  yet  witnessed.  The  progress  of  European 
civilization  had  endowed  commerce  with  legislative 
power.  Its  counsels  prevailed  in  England,  where  it 
dictated  the  national  policy,  prescribed  alliances,  and 
menaced  wars.  Jn  America,  the  political  influence  of 
commerce  sprung,  not  from  progress,  but  from  sympa- 
thy with  the  movement  of  Europe  ;  and  it  was,  less 
gloriously,  content  with  introducing  new  maxims  of 
legislation  and  new  systems  of  finance.  That  it  is 
the  duty  of  government  to  provide  a  currency  for  com- 
merce, was  the  maxim  that  came  into  vogue  in  every 
colony  but  one ;  and,  as  the  impossibility  of  maintain- 
ing a  metallic  currency,  in  a  state  of  colonial  depend- 
ence, was  assumed  as  undeniable,  the  maxim,  reduced 
to  practice,  led  to  the  perilous  use  of  paper  money. 
The  provinces  were  invited  to  manufacture  bills  of 
credit,  and  to  institute  loan  offices.  The  credit  of  the 
colonies  was  invoked  in  behalf  of  borrowers.  The  first 
emissions  of  provincial  paper  had  their  origin  in  the 
immediate  necessities  of  government.  In  times  of 
peace,  provinces  which  had  an  empty  treasury  issued 
bills  of  credit,  redeemable  at  a  remote  day,  and  put  in 
circulation,  by  means  of  loans  to  citizens,  at  a  low  rate 
if  interest,  on  the  mortgage  of  lands  The  bills,  in 


388         RELATIONS    OF    THE    COLONIES    WITH    GREAT    BRITAIiN 

CHAP,  themselves  almost  worthless,  from  the  remoteness  of 

-  the  day  of  payment,  were  made  a  lawful  tender.     The 

borrower,  who  received  them,  paid  annual  interest  on 
his  debt  to  the  state ;  and  this  interest  constituted  a 
public  revenue,  obtained,  it  was  boasted,  without  taxa 
tion.  The  system  spread  rapidly.  In  1712,  South 
Carolina  issued,  in  this  manner,  "a  bank"  of  forty- 
eight  thousand  pounds.  Massachusetts,  which  for 
twenty  years  had  used  bills  of  credit  for  public  pur- 
poses, in  1714,  authorized  an  emission  of  fifty  thou- 
sand pounds  in  bills,  to  be  put  into  the  hands  of  five 
trustees,  and  let  out  at  fl^e  per  cent,  on  safe  mortgages 
of  real  estate,  to  be  paid  back  in  five  annual  instal- 
ments. The  debts  were  not  thus  paid  back ;  but  an 
increased  clamor  was  raised  for  greater  emissions.  In 
1716,  an  additional  issue  of  one  hundred  thousand 
pounds  was  made,  and  committed  to  the  care  of 
county  trustees.  The  scarcity  of  money  was  even 
more  and  more  complained  of:  "all  the  silver  money 
was  sent  into  Great  Britain  to  make  returns  for  what 
was  owing  there."  Yet  the  system  was  imitated  in 
every  colony  but  Virginia.  Franklin,  who  afterwards 
perceived  its  evil  tendencies,  assisted,  in  1723,  in  intro- 
ducing it  into  Pennsylvania,  where  silver  had  circulated; 
1728  and  the  complaint  was  soon  heard,  that,  "as  their 
!S'  money  was  paper,  they  had  very  little  gold  and  silver, 
and,  when  any  came  in,  it  was  accounted  as  merchan- 
dise." Rhode  Island,  on  one  occasion,  combined  the 
E.  R  old  system  of  payments,  made  in  the  staple  products 
Kir"  of  industry,  with  the  new  system  of  ciedit,  and,  in 

Ucoiuit  '  «* 

°pfc^J'   1721,  "issued  a  bank  of  forty  thousand  pounds,"  on 
5°,n6.y>  which  the  interest  was  payable  in  hemp  or  flax. 

In  Massachusetts,  a  struggle  ensued  for  a  new  ap- 
plication of  the  credit  system,  by  the  establishment  of 


THE   COLONIAL   CREDIT    SYSTEM.  389 

a  land  bank.     The  design  was  long  resisted  as  "a  CHAP 

XXIll 

fraudulent   undertaking,"  and  was   acknowledged   as • 

tending  to  give  to  the  company  "power  and  influence 
in  all  public  concerns,  more  than  belonged  to  them, 
more  than  they  could  make  a  good  use  of,  and  there- 
fore unwarrantable ; "  yet,  but  for  the  interference  of 
parliament,  it  would  at  last  have  been  chartered,  and 
"the  authority  of  government" — such  is  the  language 
of  a  royalist  historian  of  the  last  century — "would  have 
been  entirely  in  the  land  bank  company." 

The  first  effects  of  the  unreal  enlargement  of  the 
currency  appeared  beneficial ;  and  men  rejoiced  in  the 
seeming  impulse  given  to  trade.  It  was  presently 
found  that  specie  was  repelled  from  the  country  by  the 
system ;  that  the  paper  furnished  but  a  depreciated 
currency,  fluctuating  in  value  with  every  new  emis- 
sion; that,  from  the  interest  of  debtors,  there  was 
between  the  colonies  some  rivalship  in  issues;  that 
the  increase  of  paper,  far  from  remedying  the  scarcity 
of  money,  excited  a  thirst  for  new  issues ;  that,  as  the 
party  of  debtors,  if  it  prevailed  in  the  legislature  but 
once  in  ten  years,  could  flood  the  country  with  bills  of 
credit,  men  had  an  interest  to  remain  in  debt ;  that 
the  income  of  widows  and  orphans,  and  all  who  had 
salaries  or  annuities,  was  ruinously  affected  by  the 
fluctuations ;  that  administrators  were  tempted  to  de- 
lay settlements  of  estates,  as  each  year  diminished  the 
value  of  the  inheritances  which  were  to  be  paid ;  and, 
finally,  that  commerce  was  corrupted  in  its  sources  by 
the  uncertainty  attending  the  expressions  of  value  in 
every  contract. 

This  uncertainty  rapidly  pervaded  the  country.  In 
1738,  the  New  England  currency  was  worth  but  one 
hundred  for  five  hundred ;  that  of  New  York,  New 


3'JO        RELATIONS    OF   THE    COLONIES    WITH    GREAT    BRITAIN. 

CHAP.  Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  and  Maryland,  one  hundred  for 

one  hundred  and  sixty  or  seventy,  or  two  hundred ;  of 

South  Carolina,  one  for  eight ;  while  of  North  Caroli- 
na— of  all  the  states  the  least  commercial  in  its  charac- 
ter— the  paper  was  in  London  esteemed  worth  but  one 
for  fourteen,  in  the  colony  but  one  for  ten.  And  yet 
the  policy  itself  was  not  repudiated.  The  statesmen 
lianumn,  of  England  never  proposed  or  desired  to  raise  the  do- 
mestic currency  of  the  colonies  to  an  equality  with  that 
of  the  great  commercial  world ;  and  the  system  which 
Franklin  had  advocated  found  an  apologist  in  Pow- 
nall,  and  was  defended  by  Edmund  Burke,  except  that 
Burke,  instead  of  a  currency  of  depreciated  paper,  pro- 
posed an  emission  of  base  coin. 

The  disputes  about  the  currency  led  to  collisions  be- 
tween the  provinces  and  England.  The  proclamation 
of  Queen  Anne  was  nugatory.  It  pretended  to  give 
to  coin  one  Value  in  England,  another  in  the  colonies ; 
but  as  the  coin,  being  an  actual  product  of  labor,  could 
not  change,  it  was,  in  fact,  but  giving  to  the  words 
pounds,  shillings,  and  pence,  a  different  signification  in 
America  from  that  which  they  bore  in  Europe.  A 
queen's  proclamation  could  not  affect  the  value  of  gold 
or  silver.  As  little  could  a  royal  proclamation  fix  the 
value  of  the  colonial  paper,  which  was  contingent  on 
the  results  of  the  past  legislation,  on  the  character  of 
the  future  policy,  of  ten  or  twelve  disconnected  colo- 
nial governments. 

Thus  the  great  topic  of  variance  between  England 
and  her  continental  colonies  of  America,  lay  in  the 
mercantile  system  and  its  consequences.  Controver- 
sies were  also  occurring  in  every  part  of  the  country 
J^Md  the  lumberers  in  Maine,  on  any  land  first  pur- 
chased  since  the  grant  of  the  new  charter  of  Massa 


COLLISIONS    BETWEEN    THE    COLONIES  AND   ENGLAND.        391 

chusetts,  cut  some  stately  pine  tree  into  logs  for  the  CHAP. 

XXIII 

saw-mill,  the  officer  of  the  British  crown  came  tc  >^v^ 
measure  its  diameter,  and  to  arraign  them  for  a  tres- 
pass in  destroying  a  mast  reserved  for  the  English 
navy.  The  colonial  legislatures  hated  the  restriction, 
and  parliament  repeatedly  interfered  to  extend  and 
confirm  the  royal  monopoly  in  the  American  forests. 
•  The  ministers  of  Massachusetts,  by  the  hand  of  Cot-  1725 
ton  Mather,  desire  a  synod,  "  to  recover  and  establish 
the  faith  and  order  of  the  gospel."  The  council  as- 
sents ;  the  house  hesitates,  and,  by  a  reference  to  the 
next  session,  gives  opportunity  for  instructions  from 
the  people.  The  bishop  of  London  anticipates  their 
decision  ;  and  a  reprimand  from  England  forbids  "the 
authoritative"  meeting,  as  a  bad  precedent  for  dissent- 
ers. An  English  prelate  was  once  more  the  opponent 
of  the  religion  of  New  England. 

The  people  of  Massachusetts  resolutely  withheld  a 
regular  salary  from  the  governor  of  royal  appointment, 
but,  by  its  legislature,  voted,  each  year,  such  a  grant 
as  his  good  offices  might  seem  to  merit.  Burnet  is  1728 
instructed  to  insist  on  an  established  salary.  The 
legislature  refuse  to  modify  the  constitution  by  relin- 
quishing any  part  of  their  power  over  the  annual  ap- 
propriations; and,  by  forbidding  their  adjournment,  the 
governor  seeks  to  weary  them  into  an  assent.  The 
rustic  patriots,  firmly  asserting  every  source  of  popular 
influence  over  the  executive,  scorned  "to  betray  the 
great  trust  reposed  in  them  by  their  principals."  Bur- 
net  hinted  that  the  parliament  of  England  might  be  in- 
voked as  arbiter  of  the  strife,  and  the  charter  of  Massa 
chusetts  be  dissolved  by  its  act.  The  representatives 
at  once  appealed  to  their  constituents,  transmitting 
a  statement  of  the  controversy  to  the  several  towns 


392        RELATIONS    OF    THE    COLONIES    WITH    GREAT    BRITAIN. 

CHAP,  in  the  colony.     Boston,  in  town  meeting,  unanimously 
^^  applauded   the  refusal  to  fix  a  salary;  and,  to  escape 


the  influence  of  that  town,  the  general  court  was  ad- 
24.    journed  to  Salem.     The  board  of  trade  reproved  the 
conduct  of  the  house  ;  the  agents  of  Massachusetts  ad- 

1729.  vised  concession,  lest  parliament  should  interfere;  but 
the  representatives  answered,  "It  is  better  that  the 
liberties  of  the  people  should  be  taken  from  them,  than 
given  up  by  themselves."     Burnet,  dying,  bequeathed 

1730.  the  contest  to  Belcher,  his  successor.     "The  assembly 
of  Massachusetts,"  it  was  said  in  his  instructions,  afor 
some  years  last  past,  have  attempted,  by  unwarranta- 
ble practices,  to  weaken,  if  not  cast  oflf,  the  obedience 
they  owe  to  the  crown,  and  the  dependence  which  all 
colonies  ought  to  have  on  their  mother  country  ;  "  and 
an  appeal  to  parliament  was  formally  menaced.     The 
general  court  still  persevered  in  its  stubbornness  ;  and, 
at   last,   as  Belcher  obtained  leave  of  the  crown  to 
accept   the  annual  grants,  the    controversy  subsided, 
leaving  victory  to  the  strong  will  of  Massachusetts. 

1733.  In  1733,  the  province  of  Massachusetts  Bay  pre- 
sented a  memorial  to  the  house  of  commons,  praying 

Rights   to  be  heard  by  counsel  on  the  subject  of  grievances  , 

Mtafn'  and  the  grief  complained  of  was  a  royal  instruction. 
This  petition  to  parliament  against  the  king  was  voted 
to  be  frivolous  and  groundless,  —  a  high  insult,  "tend- 
ing to  shake  off  the  dependency  of  said  colony." 
The  opinion  of  censure  by  the  representatives  of  Mas- 
sachusetts was,  at  the  same  time,  voted  to  be  "an  au 
dacious  proceeding." 

1728,  The  farmers  of  Connecticut  loved  to  divide  their 
domains  among  their  children.  In  regard  to  intestate 
estates,  their  law  was  annulled  in  England,  and  the 
English  law,  favoring  the  eldest  born,  was  declared  to 


THE   RIGHT    OF   A    JURY   TO    DETERMINE    THE   LAW.  393 

be  in  force  among  them.  Republican  equality  seemed  CHAP. 
endangered ;  but,  in  the  protracted  conflict  between  — ~ 
the  European  system  and  the  American  system,  the 
new  legislation  triumphed  ;   and  the  king  receded 
from  the  vain  project  of  enforcing  English  rules  of 
descent  on  the  husbandmen  of  New  England. 

At  New  York,  the  people  and  the  governor  are  in 
collision.  Cosby,  imitating  Andros  in  Massachusetts, 
insists  on  new  surveys  of  lands  and  new  grants,  in  lieu 
of  the  old.  To  the  objection  of  acting  against  law  he 
answers,  "  Do  you  think  I  mind  that  ?  I  have  a  great 
interest  in  England."  The  house  of  assembly,  chosen 
under  royalist  influences,  and  continued  from  year  to 
year,  offered  no  resistance.  The  right  of  the  electors 
was  impaired,  for  the  period  of  the  assembly  was  un- 
limited. The  courts  of  law  were  not  so  pliable ;  and 
Cosby,  displacing  the  chief  justice,  himself  appointed 
judges,  without  soliciting  the  consent  of  the  council, 
or  waiting  for  the  approbation  of  the  sovereign. 

Complaint  could  be  heard  only  through  the  press. 
A  newspaper  was  established  to  defend  the  popular 
cause;  and,  in  about  a  year  after  its  establishment,  its  1734 
printer,  John  Peter  Zenger,  was  imprisoned,  on  the  ^ 
charge  of  publishing  false  and  seditious  libels.  The 
grand  jury  would  find  no  bill  against  him,  and  the  at- 
torney-general filed  an  information.  The  counsel  of 
Zenger  took  exceptions  to  the  commissions  of  the 
judges,  because  they  ran  during  pleasure,  and  because 
they  had  been  granted  without  the  consent  of  council. 
The  court  answered  the  objection  by  excluding  those 
who  offered  it  from  the  bar.  At  the  trial,  the  publish- 
ing was  confessed ;  but  the  aged  Andrew  Hamilton,  a 
lawyer  of  Philadelphia,  pleading  for  Zenger,  justified 
the  publication  by  asserting  its  truth.  "You  cannot 
VOL.  in.  50 


394         RELATIONS   OF  THE    COLONIES    WITH    GREAT   BRITAIN. 

CHAP,  be  admitted,"  interrupted  the  chief  justice,  "to  give 

.^v^x  the  truth  of  a  libel  in  evidence."  —  "  Then,"  said  Ham- 
ilton to  the  jury,  "we  appeal  to  you  for  witnesses  of 
the  facts.  The  jury  have  a  right  to  determine  both 
the  law  and  the  fact,  and  they  ought  to  do  so."  "  The 
question  before  you,"  he  added,  "  is  not  the  cause  of  a 
poor  printer,  nor  of  New  York  alone  ;  it  is  the  best 
cause  —  the  cause  of  liberty.  Every  man  who  prefers 
freedom  to  a  life  of  slavery,  will  bless  and  honor  you 
as  men  who,  by  an  impartial  verdict,  lay  a  noble 
foundation  for  securing  to  ourselves,  our  posterity,  and 
our  neighbors,  that  to  which  nature  and  the  honor  of 
our  country  have  given  us  a  right  —  the  liberty  of  op- 
posing arbitrary  power  by  speaking  and  writing  truth." 
The  jury  gave  their  verdict,  "Not  guilty;*5  the  people 
of  the  colonies  exulted  in  the  victory  of  freedom  ;  Ham- 
ilton received  of  the  common  council  of  New  York  the 
franchises  of  the  city  for  "his  learned  and  generous  de- 
fence of  the  rights  of  mankind."  A  patriot  of  the  rev- 
olution  esteemed  this  trial  to  have  been  the  morning 
1  star  of  the  American  revolution.  But  it  was  not  one 
light  alone  that  ushered  in  the  dawn  of  our  independ- 
ence :  the  stars  of  a  whole  constellation  sang  together 
for  joy. 

In  Pennsylvania,  there  existed  the  fewest  checks  on 
n    the  power  of  the  people.    "  Popular  zeal  raged  as  high 

tpeJn°n.n  there  as  in  any  country  ;  "  and  Logan  wrote  despond- 
ingly  to  the  proprietary,  —  "  Faction  prevails  among  the 
people  ;  liberty  and  privileges  are  ever  the  cry."  The 
world  was  inexperienced  in  the  harmlessness  of  the 
ferment  of  the  public  mind,  where  that  mind  delibe- 
rates, decides,  and  governs.  To  the  timid  eye  of  that 

1729.  day,  there  seemed  "a  real  danger  of  insurrection." 
The  assemblies  were  troublesome  ;  the  spirit  of  insub- 


POPULAR  POWER.  FREEDOM  OF  THE  PRESS.        395 


ordination  grew  by  indulgence  ;  "squatters"  increased 
so  rapidly,  that  their  number  threatened  to  become  -  - 
their  security.  And  Maryland  was  as  restless  as  Penn- 
sylvania; Lord  Baltimore,  though  "a  very  reasonable 
gentleman,  was  most  insolently  treated  by  some  of  his  1728 
assemblies."  The  result  was  inexplicable  on  the  old  the- 
ories of  government.  "One  perplexity  had  succeeded 
another,  as  waves  follow  waves  in  the  sea,  while  the 
settlement  of  Penn  had  still  prospered  and  thriven  at  all 
times  since  its  beginning."  And  yet  Logan  could  not 
shake  off  distrust  of  the  issue  of  the  experiment.  "  This 
government  under  you,"  he  warns  the  proprietary,  "is  1729 
not  possibly  tenable,  without  a  miracle."  With  "  a  long 
enjoyment  of  a  free  air  and  almost  unrestrained  liberty, 
we  must  not  have  the  least  appearance  even  of  a  mili- 
tia, nor  any  other  officers  than  sheriffs  chosen  by  the 
multitude  themselves,  and  a  few  constables,  part  of 
themselves,  to  enforce  the  powers  of  government;  to 
which  add  a  most  licentious  use  of  thinking,  in  rela- 
tion to  those  powers,  most  industriously  inculcated  and 
fomented." 

Through  the  press,  no  one  had  been  so  active  as 
Benjamin  Franklin.  His  newspaper  defended  abso- 
lute freedom  of  speech  and  of  the  press  ,  for  he  held 
that  Falsehood  alone  dreads  attack,  and  cries  out  for 
auxiliaries,  while  Truth  scorns  the  aid  of  the  secular 
arm,  and  triumphs  by  her  innate  strength.  He  re- 
jected with  disdain  the  "policy  of  arbitrary  govern- 
ment," which  can  esteem  truth  itself  to  be  a  libel. 
Nor  did  he  fail  to  defend  "  popular  governments,  as 
resting-  on  the  wisest  reasons."  In  "the  multitude, 
which  hates  and  fears  ambition,"  he  saw  the  true 
counterpoise  to  unjust  designs;  and  he  defended  the 
mass,  as  unable  "to  judge  amiss  on  any  essential 


396         RELATIONS   OF   THE   COLONIES    WITH    GREAT   BRITAIN. 

CHAP,  points."  "The  judgment  of  a  whole  people," — such 
^—  was  the  sentiment  of  Franklin, — "  if  unbiased  by  fac- 
tion, undeluded  by  the  tricks  of  designing  men,  is  in- 
fallible." That  the  voice  of  the  people  is  the  voice  of 
God,  he  declared  to  be  universally  true  ;  and  therefore 
"  the  people  cannot,  in  any  sense,  divest  themselves  of 
the  supreme  authority."  Thus  he  asserted  the  com- 
mon rights  of  mankind,  by  illustrating  "  eternal  truths, 
that  cannot  be  shaken  even  with  the  foundations  of 
the  world."  Such  was  public  opinion  in  Pennsylvania 
more  than  a  century  ago. 

Virginia  was  still  more  in  contrast  with  England. 
The  eighteenth  century  was  the  age  of  commercial 
ambition ;  and  Virginia  relinquished  its  commerce  to 
foreign  factors.  It  was  the  age  when  nations  rushed 
into  debt,  when  stockjobbers  and  bankers  competed 
with  landholders  for  political  power  ;  and  Virginia  paid 
its  taxes  in  tobacco,  and  alone  of  all  the  colonies,  alone 
of  all  civilized  states,  resisting  the  universal  tendency 
of  the  age,  had  no  debts,  no  banks,  no  bills  of  credit, 
no  paper  money.  The  committee  of  its  burgesses  did 
not  fear  "  to  speak  irreverently  of  the  king's  govern- 
ment;" even  royalists  acknowledged  that  the  people 
esteemed  "  a  friendship  for  the  governor  incompatible 
with  the  interest  of  the  country ; "  but  the  people, 
though  fond  of  independence,  had  no  sullen  griefs, 
no  brooding  discontent. 

Thus  were  the  colonies  forming  a  character  of  their 
own.  Throughout  the  continent,  national  freedom 
and  independence  were  gaining  vigor  and  maturity. 
They  were  not  the  offspring  of  deliberate  forethought; 
they  were  not  planted  or  watered  by  the  hand  of  man; 
they  grew  like  the  lilies,  which  neither  toil  nor  spin. 


CHAPTER    XXIV. 


ENGLISH    ENCROACHMENTS    ON    THE    COLONIAL   MONOI'O 
LIES  OF   SPAIN   PREPARE  AMERICAN   INDEPENDENCE. 


THE  moral  world  is  swayed  by  general  laws.     They  CHAP 

J  JO  J 

extend  not  over  inanimate  nature  only,  but  over  man 
and  nations, — over  the  policy  of  rulers  and  the  opin- 
ion of  masses.  Event  succeeds  event  according  to 
their  influence  :  amidst  the  jars  of  passions  and  inter- 
ests, amidst  wars  and  alliances,  commerce  and  conflicts, 
they  form  the  guiding  principle  of  civilization,  which 
marshals  incongruous  incidents  into  their  just  places, 
and  arranges  checkered  groups  in  clear  and  harmonious 
order.  Yet  let  not  human  arrogance  assume  to  know 
intuitively,  without  observation,  the  tendency  of  the 
ages.  Research  must  be  unwearied,  and  must  be  con- 
ducted with  indifference ;  as  the  student  of  natural 
history,  in  examining  even  the  humblest  flower,  seeks 
instruments  that  may  unfold  its  wonderful  structure, 
without  color  and  without  distortion.  For  the  historic 
inquirer  to  swerve  from  exact  observation,  would  be  as 
absurd  as  for  the  astronomer  to  break  his  telescopes, 
and  compute  the  path  of  a  planet  by  conjecture 
Of  success,  too,  there  is  a  sure  criterion ;  for,  as  every 
false  statement  contains  a  contradiction,  truth  alone 
possesses  harmony.  Truth  also,  and  truth  alone,  is  per- 
manent. The  selfish  passions  of  a  party  are  as  evanes- 
cent as  the  material  interests  involved  in  the  transient 


398  HISTORY  THE    RECORD   OF   GOD'S    PROVIDENCE. 


con^*ct  :  they  maj  deserve  to  be  described  ;  they  nevei 
can  inspire  ;  and  the  narrative  which  takes  from  them 
its  bias  will  hurry  to  oblivion  as  rapidly  as  the  hearts 
in  which  they  were  kindled  moulder  to  ashes.  But 
facts  faithfully  ascertained,  and  placed  in  proper  conti- 
guity, become  of  themselves  the  firm  links  of  a  brightly 
burnished  chain,  connecting  events  with  their  causes, 
and  marking  the  line  along  which  the  electric  powei 
of  truth  is  conveyed  from  generation  to  generation. 
Events  that  are  past  are  beyond  change,  and  where 
they  merit  to  be  known,  can,  in  their  general  aspect, 
be  known  accurately.  The  constitution  of  the  human 
mind  varies  only  in  details  ;  its  elements  are  the  same 
always  ;  and  the  multitude,  possessing  but  a  combi 
nation  of  the  powers  and  passions  of  which  each  one 
is  conscious,  is  subject  to  the  same  laws  which  con- 
trol individuals.  Humanity,  also,  constantly  enriched 
and  cultivated  by  the  truths  it  develops  and  the  in- 
ventions it  amasses,  has  a  life  of  its  own,  and  yet 
possesses  no  element  that  is  not  common  to  each  of 
its  members.  By  comparison  of  document  with  docu- 
ment; by  an  analysis  of  facts,  and  the  reference  of 
each  of  them  to  the  laws  of  the  human  mind  which 
it  illustrates;  by  separating  the  idea  which  inspires 
combined  action  from  the  forms  it  assumes  ;  by  com- 
paring events  with  the  great  movement  of  humanity,  — 
historic  truth  may  establish  itself  as  a  science  ;  and  the 
principles  that  govern  human  affairs,  extending  like 
a  path  of  light  from  century  to  century,  become  the 
highest  demonstration  of  the  superintending  provi- 
dence of  God. 

The  inference  that  there  is  progress  in  human  affairs, 
is  also  warranted.  The  trust  of  our  race  has  ever  been 
in  the  coming  of  better  times.  Universal  history  does 


ii.  377 

and  ;!82 


THE    UPWARD    TENDENCY    OF   HUMANITY.  399 

but  seek  to  relate  "the  sum  of  all  God's  works  of  prov-  CHAP. 

XXIV. 

idence."  In  America,  the  first  conception  of  its  office,  ^~ 
in  the  mind  of  Jonathan  Edwards,  though  still  cramped  1739 
and  perverted  by  theological  forms  not  derived  from 
observation,  was  nobler  than  the  theory  of  Vico :  more 
grand  and  general  than  the  method  of  Bossuet,  it  em- 
braced in  its  outline  the  whole  "  work  of  redemption," 
— the  history  of  the  influence  of  all  moral  truth  in  the 
gradual  regeneration  of  humanity.  The  meek  New 
England  divine,  in  his  quiet  association  with  the  inno- 
cence and  simplicity  of  rural  life,  knew  that,  in  every 
succession  of  revolutions,  the  cause  of  civilization  and 
moral  reform  is  advanced.  "The  new  creation" —  works 

of  Ed- 
SUCh  are  his  words — "  is  more  excellent  than  the  old. 

So  it  ever  is,  that  when  one  thing  is  removed  by  God 
to  make  way  for  another,  the  new  excels  the  old." — 
"The  wheels  of  Providence,"  he  adds,  "are  not  turned 
about  by  blind  chance,  but  they  are  full  of  eyes  round 
about,  and  they  are  guided  by  the  spirit  of  God.  Where 
the  spirit  goes,  they  go."  Nothing  appears  more  self- 
determined  than  the  volitions  of  each  individual;  and 
nothing  is  more  certain  than  that  the  providence  of 
God  will  overrule  them  for  good.  The  finite  will  of 
man,  free  in  its  individuality,  is,  in  the  aggregate,  sub- 
ordinate to  general  laws.  This  is  the  reason  why  evil 
is  self-destructive;  why  truth,  when  it  is  once  gene- 
rated, is  sure  to  live  forever ;  why  freedom  and  justice, 
though  resisted  and  restrained,  renew  the  contest  from 
age  to  age,  confident  that  messengers  from  heaven 
fight  on  their  side,  and  that  the  stars  in  their  courses 
war  against  their  foes.  There  would  seem  to  be  no 
harmony,  and  no  consistent  tendency  to  one  great  end, 
in  the  confused  events  of  the  reigns  of  George  II. 
of  England  and  Louis  XV.  of  France,  where  legisla- 


4*00  RELATIONS    OF   ENGLAND   WITH    SPAIN. 

£HAP.  tion  was  now  surrendered  to  the  mercantile  passion  for 

gain,  was  now  swayed  by  the  ambition  and  avarice  of 

the  mistresses  of  kings, — where  the  venal  corruption 
of  public  men,  the  open  profligacy  of  courts,  the  greedy 
cupidity  of  trade,  conspired  in  exercising  dominion  over 
the  civilized  community.  The  political  world  was 
without  form  and  void ;  yet  the  spirit  of  God  was 
moving  over  the  chaos  of  human  passions  and  human 
caprices,  bringing  forth  the  firm  foundations  on  which 
better  hopes  were  to  rest,  and  setting  in  the  firmament 
the  bright  lights  that  were  to  serve  as  guides  to  the 
nations. 

England,  France,  and  Spain,  occupied  all  the  conti- 
nent, nearly  all  the  islands,  of  North  America ;  each 
established  over  its  colonies  an  oppressive  metropolitan 
monopoly.  Had  they  been  united,  no  colony  could 
have  rebelled  successfully ;  but  Great  Britain,  in  the 
pride  of  opulence,  vigorously  enforced  her  own  acts  of 
navigation,  and  disregarded  those  of  Spain.  Strictly 
maintaining  the  exclusive  commerce  with  her  own  col- 
onies, she  coveted  intercourse  with  the  Spanish  islands 
and  main ;  and,  intent  on  her  object,  she  was  about  to 
give  to  the  world,  for  the  first  time  in  its  history,  the 
spectacle  of  a  war  for  trade.  One  colonial  power  en- 
croached on  another,  and,  in  its  passion  for  gain,  not 
content  with  oppressing  its  own  plantations,  strove  to 
appropriate  to  itself  the  wealth  and  commerce  of  the 
colonies  of  its  rival.  Thus  the  metropolitan  monopo- 
lists were  divided  against  themselves.  Their  divisions 
were  to  their  colonies  reciprocally  a  promise  of  an  ally 
in  case  of  rebellion.  The  war,  engendered  by  the 
grasping  avidity  of  England,  against  the  colonial  mo- 
nopoly of  Spain,  hastened  the  approach  of  commercial 
freedom,  and  contained  for  the  colonies  an  augury  of 
independence. 


THE    SOUTH    SEA    COMPANY   AND   THE   ASSIENTO.  401 

A  part  of  the  creditors  of  England  had  been  incorpo-  CHAP 

XXIV 

rated  into  a  company,  with  the  exclusive  trade  to  the  -^^ 
South  Seas.  But  as  Spain,  having  acquired  the  Amer- 
ican coast  in  those  seas,  possessed  a  monopoly  of  its 
commerce,  the  grant  was  nugatory  and  worthless,  un- 
less the  monopoly  of  Spain  could  be  successfully  in- 
vaded ;  and,  for  this  end,  the  benefit  of  the  assiento 
treaty  was  assigned  to  the  South  Sea  company. 

In  1719,  the  capital  of  the  company  was  increased 
by  new  subscriptions  of  national  debts;  and,  in  the 
next  year,  it  was  proposed  to  incorporate  into  its  stock 
all  the  national  debt  of  England.  The  system  resem- 
bled that  of  Law;  but  the  latter  was  connected  with 
a  bank  of  issue,  and  became  a  war  against  specie.  In 
England,  there  was  no  attempt,  directly  or  indirectly, 
to  exile  specie,  no  increase  of  the  circulating  medium, 
but  only  an  increase  of  stocks.  The  parties  implicated 
suffered  from  fraud  and  folly;  the  stockjobbers — they 
who  had  parted  with  their  certificates  of  the  national 
debt  for  stock  in  the  company — they  who,  hurried 
away  by  a  blind  avidity,  had  engaged  in  other  "bub- 
bles"— were  ruined;  but  the  country  was  not  im- 
poverished. 

Enough  of  the  South  Sea  company  survived  the 
overthrow  of  hopes  which  had  no  foundation  but  in 
fraud  or  delusion,  to  execute  the  contract  for  negroes, 
and  to  covet  an  illicit  commerce  with  Spanish  America. 
Cupidity  grew  the  more  earnest  from  having  been 
baffled;  and,  at  last,  "ambition,  avarice,  distress,  dis-  Coxe 
appointment,  and  all  the  complicated  vices  that  tend  HLiwS- 
to  render  the  mind  of  man  uneasy,  filled  all  places  and 
all  hearts  in  the  English  nation."  Dreams  of  the  con- 
quest of  Florida,  with  the  possession  of  the  Bahama 
Channel, — of  the  conquest  of  Mexico  and  Peru,  with 
VOL.  in.  51 


402   ENGLAND  SEEKS  A  MONOPOLY  OF  THE  SLAVE  TRADE. 

CHAP,  their  real  and  their  imagined  wealth, — rose  up  to  daz- 

XXIV 

» — ~  zle  the  minds  of  the  restless.  While  the  opportu- 
nity of  conquest  and  rapine  was  anxiously  waited  for, 
Jamaica  became  the  centre  of  an  extensive  smuggling 
trade ;  and  slave  ships,  deriving  their  passport  from 
the  assiento  treaty,  were  the  ready  instruments  of  con- 
traband cupidity. 

The  great  activity  of  the  English  slave  trade  does 
not  acquire  its  chief  interest  for  American  history  by 
the  transient  conflict  to  which  it  led.  While  the  South 
Sea  company  satisfied  but  imperfectly  its  passion  for 
wealth,  by  a  monopoly  of  the  supply  of  negroes  for  the 
Spanish  islands  and  main,  the  African  company  and 
independent  traders  were  still  more  busy  in  sending 
negroes  to  the  colonies  of  England.  To  this  eager- 
ness, encouraged  by  English  legislation,  fostered  by 
royal  favor,  and  enforced  for  a  century  by  every  suc- 
cessive ministry  of  England,  it  is  due,  that  one  sixth 
part  of  the  population  of  the  United  States — a  moiety 
of  those  who  dwell  in  the  five  states  nearest  the  Gulf 
of  Mexico — are  descendants  of  Africans. 

The  colored  men  who  were  imported  into  our  colo 
nies,  sometimes  by  way  of  the  West  Indies,  and  some 
times,  especially  for  the  south,  directly  from  the  Old 
World,  were  sought  all  along  the  African  coast,  for 
S'aSt  thirty  degrees  together,  from  Cape  Blanco  to  Loango 
St.  Paols;  from  the  Great  Desert  of  Sahara  to  the  king- 
dom of  Angola,  or  perhaps  even  to  the  borders  of  the 
land  of  the  Caffres.  It  is  not  possible  to  relate  pre- 
cisely in  what  bay  they  were  respectively  laden,  from 
what  sunny  cottages  they  were  kidnapped,  from  what 
more  direful  captivity  they  were  rescued.  The  traders 
in  men  have  not  been  careful  to  record  the  lineage  of 
their  victims.  They  were  chiefly  gathered  from  gangs 


THE    SLAVE    IN    AFRICA  403 

that  were  marched  from  the  far  interior ;  so  that  the  CHAP 

XX.  1  v  • 

freight  of  a  single  ship  might  be  composed  of  persons  ^*^- 
of  different  languages,  and  of  nations  altogether 
strange  to  each  other.  Nor  was  there  uniformity  of 
complexion :  of  those  brought  to  our  country,  some 
were  from  tribes  of  which  the  skin  was  of  a  tawny 
yellow 

The  purchases  in  Africa  were  made,  in  part,  of 
convicts  punished  with  slavery,  or  mulcted  in  a  fine, 
which  was  discharged  by  their  sale ;  of  debtors  sold, 
though  but  rarely  into  foreign  bondage;  of  children 
sold  by  their  parents ;  of  kidnapped  villagers ;  of 
captives  taken  in  war.  Hence  the  sea-coast  and  the 
confines  of  hostile  nations  were  laid  waste.  But  the 
chief  source  of  supply  was  from  swarms  of  those  born 
in  a  state  of  slavery;  for  the  despotisms,  the  supersti- 
tions,  and  the  usages  of  Africa  had  multiplied  bondage,  g 
In  the  upper  country,  on  the  Senegal  and  the  Gambia,  i. 
three  fourths  of  the  inhabitants  were  not  free ;  and  the 
slave's  master  was  the  absolute  lord  of  the  slave's  chil- 
dren. The  trade  in  slaves,  whether  for  the  caravans 
of  the  Moors  or  for  the  European  ships,  was  chiefly 
supplied  from  the  natural  increase.  In  the  healthy  and 
fertile  uplands  of  Western  Africa,  under  the  tropical 
sun,  the  reproductive  power  of  the  prolific  race,  com- 
bined with  the  imperfect  development  of  its  moral  fac- 
ulties, gave  to  human  life,  in  the  eye  of  man  himself, 
an  inferior  value.  Humanity  did  not  respect  itself  in 
any  of  its  forms, — in  the  individual,  in  the  family,  or  in 
the  nation.  Our  systems  of  morals  will  not  explain  the 
phenomenon :  its  cause  is  not  to  be  sought  in  the  sup- 
pression of  moral  feeling,  but  rather  in  the  condition 
of  a  branch  of  the  human  family  not  yet  conscious  of 
its  powers,  not  yet  fully  possessed  of  its  moral  and  ra- 


404   ENGLAND  SEEKS  A  MONOPOLY  OF  THE  SLAVE  TRADE. 

CHAP,  tional  life.     In  the  state  of  humanity  itself,  in  Sene- 

XXIV 

-~v^  gambia,  in  Upper  and  Lower  Guinea,  the  problem  of 
the  slave  trade  finds  its  solution.  The  habits  of  lift 
of  the  native  tribes  of  America  rendered  its  establish- 
ment with  them  impossible.  The  quick  maturity  of 
life*  tne  facility  of  obtaining  sustenance,  the  nature  of 
the  negro,  as  influenced  by  a  hot  sun,  a  healthful  and 
fertile  clime,  an  undeveloped  intelligence,  and  the 
fruitfulness  of  the  race,  explain  why,  from  century  to 
century,  the  slave  ships  could  find  a  freight,  and  yet 
the  population  of  the  interior  be  constantly  replenished. 

England  valued  Africa  as  returning  for  her  manufac- 
tures abundant  laborers  for  her  colonies,  and  valued  it 
for  nothing  else.  Africans  of  more  than  thirty  years 
of  age  were  rejected  by  the  traders  as  too  old,  and  few 
were  received  under  fourteen.  Of  the  whole  number, 
not  more  than  one  third  part  was  composed  of  women, 
and  a  woman  past  two-and-twenty  was  hardly  deemed 
worth  transportation.  The  English  slave  ships  were 
laden  with  the  youth  of  Africa. 

Slavery,  and  even  a  change  of  masters,  were  famil- 
iar to  the  African ;  but  to  be  conducted  to  the  shores 
of  the  Western  Ocean,  to  be  doomed  to  pass  its 
boundless  deep,  and  enter  on  new  toils,  in  an  untried 
clime,  and  amidst  an  unknown  race,  was  appalling  to 
the  black  man.  The  horrors  of  the  passage,  also,  cor- 
responded with  the  infamy  of  the  trade.  Small  ves- 
sels, of  little  more  than  two  hundred  tons  burden,  were 
prepared  for  the  traffic;  for  these  could  most  easily 
penetrate  the  bays  and  rivers  of  the  coast,  and,  quick- 
ly  obtaining  a  lading,  could  soonest  hurry  away  from 
the  deadly  air  of  Western  Africa.  In  such  a  bark 
five  hundred  negroes  and  more  have  been  stowed, 
exciting  wonder  that  men  could  have  lived,  within  the 


THE  VOYAGE  OF  THE  SLAVE  FROM  AFRICA  TO  AMERICA.   405 

tropics,  cribbed  in  so  few  inches  of  room  The  ine-  CHAP 
quality  of  force  between  the  crew  and  the  cargo  led  ^-^ 
to  the  use  of  manacles  ;  the  hands  of  the  .stronger  men 
were  made  fast  together,  and  the  right  leg  of  one  was 
chained  to  the  left  of  another.  The  avarice  of  the 
trader  was  a  partial  guaranty  of  the  security  of  life,  as 
far  as  it  depended  on  him ;  but  death  hovered  always 
over  the  slave  ship.  The  negroes,  as  they  came  from 
the  higher  level  to  the  sea-side, — poorly  fed  on  the  sad 
pilgrimage,  sleeping  at  night  on  the  damp  earth  with- 
out covering,  and  often  reaching  the  coast  at  unfavora- 
ble seasons, — imbibed  the  seeds  of  disease,  which  con- 
finement on  board  ship  quickened  into  feverish  activity. 
There  have  been  examples  where  one  half  of  them — it 
has  been  said,  even,  where  two  thirds  of  them — per- 
ished on  the  passage.  The  total  loss  of  life  on  the  voy- 
age is  computed  to  have  been,  on  the  average,  fifteen, 
certainly  full  twelve  and  a  half,  in  the  hundred :  the 
harbors  of  the  West  Indies  proved  fatal  to  four  and  a 
half  more  out  of  every  hundred.  No  scene  of  wretch- 
edness could  surpass  a  crowded  slave  ship  during  a 
storm  at  sea,  unless  it  were  that  same  ship  dismasted, 
or  suffering  from  a  protracted  voyage  and  want  of  food, 
its  miserable  inmates  tossed  helplessly  to  and  fro  under 
the  rays  of  a  vertical  sun,  vainly  gasping  for  a  drop  of 
water. 

Of  a  direct  voyage  from  Guinea  to  the  coast  of  the 
United  States  no  journal  is  known  to  exist,  though 
slave  ships  from  Africa  entered  nearly  every  considera- 
ble harbor  south  of  Newport. 

In  the  northern  provinces  of  English  America,  the 
few  negroes  were  lost  in  the  larger  number  of  whites ; 
and  only  in  the  lowlands  of  South  Carolina  and  Vir- 


406   ENGLAND  SEEKS  A  MONOPOLY  OF  THL  SLAVE  TRADL. 


ginia  did  they  constitute  a  great  majority  of  the  in- 
~~~  habitants.  But  they  came  with  the  limited  faculties  of 
uncivilized  man  :  when  they  met  on  our  soil,  they  were 
as  strange  to  one  another  as  to  their  masters.  Coming 
from  places  in  Africa  a  thousand  miles  asunder,  the 
negro  emigrants  to  America  brought  with  them  no 
common  language,  no  abiding  usages,  no  worship,  mi 
nationality.  They  were  compelled  to  adopt  a  new  di 
alect  for  intercourse  with  each  other;  and  broken  Eng- 
lish became  their  tongue  not  less  among  themselves 
than  with  their  masters.  Hence  there  was  no  unity 
among  them,  and  no  immediate  political  danger  from 
their  joint  action.  Once  an  excitement  against  them 
raged  in  New  York,  through  fear  of  a  pretended 
plot  ;  but  the  frenzy  grew  out  of  a  delusion.  Some- 
times the  extreme  harshness  of  taskmasters  may  have 
provoked  resistance  ;  or  sometimes  an  African,  accus- 
tomed from  birth  to  freedom,  and  reduced  to  slavery 
by  the  chances  of  war,  carried  with  him  across  the 
Atlantic  the  indomitable  spirit  of  a  warrior  ;  but  the 
instances  of  insurrection  were  insulated,  and  without 
result.  Destitute  of  common  traditions,  customs,  and 
laws,  the  black  population  existed  in  fragments,  having 
no  bonds  of  union  but  color  and  misfortune.  Thus  the 
negro  slave  in  America  was  dependent  on  his  master  Tor 
civilization  ;  he  could  be  initiated  into  skill  in  the  arts 
only  through  him  ;  through  him  only  could  he  gain  a 
country  ;  and,  as  a  consequence,  in  the  next  generation, 
if  dissatisfied  with  his  condition,  he  had  yet  learned  to 
love  the  land  of  his  master  ;  it  was  his  country  also. 

It  is  not  easy  to  conjecture  how  many  negroes  were 
imported  into  the  English  continental  colonies.  The 
usual  estimates  far  exceed  the  truth.  Climate  came 


CONDITION    OF   THE    NEGRO    IN    AMERICA.  407 

in  aid  of  opinion  to  oppose  the  introduction  of  them.  CHAP 
As  their  limited  number  diminished  the  danger  from 
their  presence,  they,  from  the  first,  appear  to  have 
increased,  though,  owing  to  the  inequality  of  the 
sexes,  not  rapidly  in  the  first*  generation.  Previous 
to  the  year  1740,  there  may  have  been  introduced  into 
our  country  nearly  one  hundred  and  thirty  thousand ; 
before  1776,  a  few  more  than  three  hundred  thousand. 
[n  1727,  "the  vast  importation  of  negroes"  was  a  sub- 
ject of  complaint  in  South  Carolina.  The  German 
traveller  Von  Reck,  in  1734,  reported  the  number  of 
negroes  in  that  province  at  thirty  thousand,  and  for 
the  annual  importation  gave  the  greatly  exaggerated  &c.i?9 
estimate  of  nearly  three  thousand. 

In  the  Northern  and  the  Middle  States,  the  negro 
was  employed  for  menial  offices  and  in  the  culture  of 
wheat  and  maize.  Almost  all  the  tobacco  exported 
from  Maryland  and  Virginia,  all  the  indigo  and  lice  of 
Carolina,  were  the  frrat  of  his  toils.  Instead  of  re- 
maining in  a  wild  and  unproductive  servitude,  his  labor 
contributed  to  the  wealth  of  nations, — his  destiny,  frpm 
its  influence  on  commerce,  excited  interest  throughout 
the  civilized  world. 

With  new  powers  of  production,  the  negro  learned 
new  wants,  which  were  at  least  partially  supplied.  At 
the  north,  he  dwelt  under  the  roof  of  his  master ;  his 
physical  well-being  was  provided  for,  and  opinion  pro- 
tected him  against  cruelty.  At  the  south,  his  home  was 
a  rude  cabin  of  his  own,  constructed  of  logs  or  slabs, — 
to  him,  but  for  the  abundance  of  fuel,  a  feeble  protec- 
tion against  winter.  The  early  writers  tell  us  little  of 
his  history,  except  the  crops  which  he  raised. 

The  physical  constitution  of  the  negro  decided  his 


408   ENGLAND  SEEKS  A  MONOPOLY  OF  THE  SLAVE  TRADE. 

CHAP,  home  in  the  New  World  :  he  loved  the  sun  ;  even  the 

^v  JLl  V« 

climate  of  Virginia  was  too  chill  for  him.  His  labor, 

therefore,  increased  in  value  as  he  proceeded  south; 
and  hence  the  relation  of  master  and  slave  came  to  be 
essentially  a  southern  institution  :  to  the  southern  col- 
onies, mainly,  Providence  intrusted  the  guardianship 
and  the  education  of  the  colored  race. 

The  concurrent  testimony  of  tradition  represents  the 
negroes,  at  their  arrival,  to  have  been  gross  and  stupid, 
having  memory  and  physical  strength,  but  undisciplined 
in  the  exercise  of  reason  and  imagination.  Their  or- 
ganization seemed  analogous  to  their  barbarism.  But, 
at  the  end  of  a  generation,  all  observers  affirmed  the 
marked  progress  of  the  negro  American.  In  the 
midst  of  the  horrors  of  slavery  and  the  slave  trade,  the 
masters  had,  in  part  at  least,  performed  the  office  of 
advancing  and  civilizing  the  negro. 

The  thought  of  emancipation  early  presented  itself. 
In  1701,  Boston  instructed  its  representatives  "  to  put 
a  period  to  negroes' .being  slaves."  In  1712,  to  a  gen- 
eral petition  for  the  emancipation  of  negro  slaves  by 
law,  the  legislature  of  Pennsylvania  answered  that  "it 
was  neither  just  nor  convenient  to  set  them  at  liber- 
ty;" and  yet  George  Keith,  the  early  abolitionist,  was 
followed  by  the  eccentric  Benjamin  Lay, — by  Ralph 
Sandiford,  who  held  slavery  to  be  inconsistent  alike 
with  the  rights  of  man  and  the  principles  of  Christiani- 
ty,— and,  at  a  later  day,  by  the  amiable  enthusiast 
Anthony  Benezet. 

But  did  not  Christianity  enfranchise  its  converts? 
The  Christian  world  of  that  day  almost  universally  re- 
vered in  Christ  the  impersonation  of  the  divine  wis- 
dom. Could  an  intelligent  being,  who,  through  the 


CONDITION    OF    THE    NEGRO    IN    AMERICA.  409 

Mediator,  had  participated  in  the  Spirit  of  God,  and,  CHAP 
by  his  own  inward  experience,  had  become  conscious  ^^ 
of  a  Supreme  Existence,   and   of  relations    between 
that  Existence   and  humanity,  be  rightfully  held  in   Berke- 
bondage?     From  New  England  to  Carolina,  the  "no- 
tion  "  prevailed,  that  "  being  baptized  is  inconsistent 


with  a  state  of  slavery;"   and   this  early  apprehen-  L^8d^f 
sion  proved  a  main  obstacle  to  the  culture  and  "con-  "ifi!*" 

1712 

version  of  these  poor  people."  The  sentiment  was  so  Daicho. 
deep  and  so  general,  that  South  Carolina  in  1712, 
Maryland  in  1715,  Virginia  repeatedly  from  1667  to  Hen  u 
1748,  gave  a  negative  to  it  by  special  enactments.  Ss/ic. 
The  lawyers,  also,  declared  the  fear  groundless  ;  and 
"the  opinion  of  his  majesty's  attorney  and  solicitor- 
general,  Yorke  and  Talbot,  signed  with  their  own 
hands,  was  accordingly  printed  in  Rhode  Island,  and 
dispersed  through  the  plantations."  "  I  heartily  wish," 
adds  Berkeley,  "  it  may  produce  the  intended  effect  ;  " 
and,  at  the  same  time,  he  rebuked  "the  irrational  con- 
tempt of  the  blacks,"  which  regarded  them  "as  crea- 
tures of  another  species,  having  no  right  to  be  instruct- 
ed." In  like  manner,  Gibson,  the  bishop  of  London, 
declared  that  "  Christianity  and  the  embracing  of  the 
gospel  does  not  make  the  least  alteration  in  civil  prop- 
erty;" while  he  besought  the  masters  to  regard  the 
negroes  "  not  barely  as  slaves,  but  as  men-slaves  and 
women-slaves,  having  the  same  frame  and  faculties 
with  themselves."  Thus  was  strife  with  the  lawyers 
and  the  planters  avoided  by  friends  to  the  negro,  who 
were  anxious  for  his  improvement,  and  yet  willing  to 
leave  his  emancipation  to  be  decided  by  the  result. 

But  for  the  difference  of  color,  this  question  would 
at  once  have  been  decided  in  the  affirmative.     There 
is  not,  in  all  the  colonial  legislation  of  America,  one 
VOL.  in.  52 


410   ENGLAND  SEEKS  A  MONOPOLY  OF  THE  SLAVE  TRADE. 

CHAP,  single  law  which  recognizes  the  rightfulness  of  slavery 
— •v^  in  the  abstract.  Every  province  favored  freedom  as 
such.  The  real  question  at  issue  was,  from  the  first, 
not  one  of  slavery  and  freedom  generally,  but  of  the 
relations  to  each  other  of  the  Ethiopian  and  American 
races.  The  Englishman  in  America  tolerated  and 
enforced  not  the  slavery  of  man,  but  the  slavery  of  the 

man  who  was 

"  guilty  of  a  skin 
Not  colored  like  his  own." 

In  the  skin  lay  unexpiated,  and,  as  it  was  held,  inex- 
piable, guilt.  The  negro,  whom  the  benevolence  of 
his  master  enfranchised,  was  not  absorbed  into  the 
mass  of  the  free  population :  his  color  adhered  to  him, 
and  still  constituted  him  a  separate  element  in  society. 
Hence  arose  laws  restricting  the  right  of  emancipation. 
The  indelible  mark  of  his  species  remained  unfaded 
and  unchanged ;  and,  in  the  state  of  opinion,  for  him 
to  rise  by  single  merit  was  impracticable ;  the  path  to 
social  equality  was  not  open  to  him ;  he  could  not  raise 
I?- '  himself  from  humiliation  without  elevating  his  race. 

Our  country  might  well  have  shrunk  from  assuming 
the  guardianship  of  the  negro.  Hence  the  question  of 
tolerating  the  slave  trade  and  the  question  of  abolish- 
ing slavery  rested  on  different  grounds.  The  one  re- 
lated to  a  refusal  of  a  trust;  the  other,  to  the  manner 
of  its  exercise.  The  English  continental  colonies,  in 
the  aggregate,  were  always  opposed  to  the  African 
slave  trade.  Maryland,  Virginia,  even  Carolina, — 
alarmed  at  the  excessive  production  and  the  conse- 
quent low  price  of  their  staples,  at  the  heavy  debts  in- 
curred by  the  purchase  of  slaves  on  credit,  and  at  the 
dangerous  increase  of  the  colored  population, — each 
showed  an  anxious  preference  for  the  introduction  of 


T  J 
Ran. 

dol 


NUMBER  OF   NEGROES    IMPORTED    INTO   AMERICA.  411 

white  men  :  and  laws  designed  to  restrict  importations  CHAP 

XXIV 

of  slaves,  are  scattered  copiously  along  the  records  of  -  ~ 


colonial   legislation.      The   first   continental   congress 
which  took  to  itself  powers  of  legislation,  gave  a  legal     6. 
expression  to  the  well-formed  opinion  of  the  country,  'TcEI1-8 
by  resolving  "  that  no  slaves  be  imported  into  any  of  "IS? 
the  thirteen  united  colonies." 

Before  America  legislated  for  herself,  the  interdict 
of  the  slave  trade  was  impossible.  England  was  in- 
exorable in  maintaining  the  system,  which  gained  new 
and  stronger  supporters  by  its  excess.  The  Eng- 
lish slave  trade  began  to  attain  its  great  activity  after 
the  assiento  treaty.  From  1680  to  1700,  the  English 
took  from  Africa  about  three  hundred  thousand  ne-  wards, 
groes,  or  about  fifteen  thousand  a  year.  The  number, 
during  the  continuance  of  the  assiento,  may  have 
averaged  not  far  from  thirty  thousand.  Raynal  con- 
siders the  number  of  negroes  exported  by  all  European 
nations  from  Africa  before  1776,  to  have  been  nine 
millions  ;  and  the  considerate  German  historian  of  the 
slave  trade,  Albert  Hiine,  deems  his  statement  too  small. 
A  careful  analysis  of  the  colored  population  in  America 
at  different  periods,  and  the  inferences  to  be  deduced 
from  the  few  authentic  records  of  the  numbers  import- 
ed, corrected  by  a  comparison  with  the  commercial 
products  of  slave  labor,  as  appearing  in  the  annals  of 
English  commerce,  seem  to  prove,  beyond  a  doubt, 
that  even  the  estimate  of  Raynal  is  larger  than  the 
reality.  We  shall  not  err  very  much,  if,  for  the  cen- 
tury previous  to  the  prohibition  of  the  slave  trade  by 
the  American  congress,  in  1776,  we  assume  the  num- 
ber imported  by  the  English  into  the  Spanish,  French, 
and  English  West  Indies,  as  well  as  the  English  con- 
tinental colonies,  to  have  been,  collectively,  nearly 
three  millions  ;  to  which  are  to  be  added  more  than  a 


412        ENGLAND    SEEKS  A   MONOPOLY    OF   THE    SLAVE    TR/VDE. 

CHAP,  quarter  of  a  million  purchased  in  Africa,  and  thrown 
-*-v^  into  the  Atlantic  on  the  passage.  The  gross  returns 
to  English  merchants,  for  the  whole  traffic  in  that 
number  of  slaves,  may  have  been  not  far  from  four 
hundred  millions  of  dollars.  Yet,  as  at  least  one  half 
of  the  negroes  exported  from  Africa  to  America  were 
carried  in  English  ships,  it  should  be  observed  that  this 
estimate  is  by  far  the  lowest  ever  made  by  any  inquirer 
into  the  statistics  of  human  wickedness.  After  every 
deduction,  the  trade  retains  its  gigantic  character  of 
crime. 

In  an  age  when  the  interests  of  trade  guided  legis- 
lation, this  branch  of  commerce  possessed  paramount 
attractions.  Not  a  statesman  exposed  its  enormities ; 
and,  if  Richard  Baxter  echoed  the  opinions  of  Puritan 
Massachusetts  ;  if  Southern  drew  tears  by  the  tragic 
tale  of  Oronooko;  if  Steele  awakened  a  throb  of  indig- 
nation by  the  story  of  Inkle  and  Yarico;  if  Savage  and 
Shenstone  pointed  their  feeble  couplets  with  the  wrongs 
of  "Afric's  sable  children;"  if  the  Irish  metaphysician 
Hutcheson,  struggling  for  a  higher  system  of  morals, 
justly  stigmatized  the  traffic ;  yet  no  public  opinion 
lifted  its  voice  against  it.  English  ships,  fitted  out 
in  English  cities,  under  the  special  favor  of  the  royal 
family,  of  the  ministry,  and  of  parliament,  stole  from 
Africa,  in  the  years  from  1700  to  1750,  probably  a 
million  and  a  half  of  souls,  of  whom  one  eighth  were 
buried  in  the  Atlantic,  victims  of  the  passage ;  and 
yet  in  England  no  general  indignation  rebuked  the 
enormity ;  for  the  public  opinion  of  the  age  was  obe- 
dient to  materialism.  Wars  had  been  for  thie  bal- 
ance of  power,  as  though  the  safeguards  of  nations 
lay  in  force  alone.  Protestantism  itself  had,  in  the 
political  point  of  view,  been  the  triumph  of  materialism 
over  the  spiritual  authority  of  the  church.  The  same 


ENGLISH   OPINION   FAVORS    THE    SLAVE    TRADE  415 

influence   exhibited   itself  in  philosophy  and   letters.  CHAP 

Shaftesbury,  who  professed  to  be  its  antagonist,  de »- 

grading  conscience  to  the  sphere  of  sensibility,  en- 
larged, rather  than  subverted,  the  philosophy  of  the 
senses.  The  poetical  essayist  on  man,  in  exquisite  dic- 
tion, exalted  self-love  into  an  identity  with  social,  and 
celebrated  its  praise  as  the  source  of  the  most  capacious 
philanthropy.  Bolingbroke,  in  his  attacks  on  religion, 
was  but  a  caviler  at  historical  difficulties.  Of  the  large 
school  of  English  deists,  some  were  only  disposed  to 
make  war  upon  human  authority ;  while  others,  led 
astray  by  materialism,  in  their  theories  of  necessity,  so 
lost  sight  of  the  creative  power  of  mind,  as  to  make  of 
the  universe  but  one  vast  series  of  results  consequent 
on  laws  of  nature.  Even  Hume  did  not  reject  a  sys- 
tem, which,  as  he  demonstrated,  led  to  nothing  abso- 
lute but  skepticism.  The  philosophy  of  that  day  fur- 
nished to  the  African  no  protection  against  oppression; 
and  the  interpretation  of  English  common  law  was 
equally  regardless  of  human  freedom.  The  colonial 
negro,  who  sailed  to  the  metropolis,  found  no  benefit 
from  touching  the  soil  of  England,  but  returned  a 
slave.  Such  was  the  approved  law  of  Virginia  in  the 
first  half  of  the  last  century ;  such  was  the  opinion  of  ft!1^8 
Yorke  and  Talbot,  the  law  officers  of  the  crown,  as 
expressed  in  1729,  and,  after  a  lapse  of  twenty  years,  ciark- 
repeated  and  confirmed  by  one  of  the  same  authorities, 
as  chancellor  of  England. 

The  influence  of  the  manufacturers  was  still  worse. 
They  clamored  for  the  protection  of  a  trade  which 
opened  to  them  an  African  market.  Thus  the  party 
of  the  slave  trade  dictated  laws  to  England.  A  resolve 
of  the  commons,  in  the  days  of  William  and  Mary,  pro- 
posed to  lay  open  the  trade  in  negroes  "for  the  better 
supply  of  the  plantations  • "  and  the  statute-book  of 


414   ENGLAND  SEEKS  A  MONOPOLY  OF  THE  SLAVE  TRADE. 

auuvl  England  soon  declared  the  opinion  of  its  king  and  its 
*  parliament,  that  "the  trade  is  highly  beneficial  and  ad- 

saruHo  vantageous  to  the  kingdom  and  the  colonies."    In  1708, 

wii.ru  •  r   • 

e.«vi    a  committee  or  the  house  or  commons  report  that  "the 

trade  is  important,  and  ought  to  be  free;"  in  1711,  a 
committee   once   more   report   that   "the    plantations 
ought  to  be  supplied  with  negroes  at  reasonable  rates," 
and  recommend   an  increase  of  the  trade.     In  June, 
1712,  Queen  Anne,  in  her  speech  to  parliament,  boasts 
of  her  success  in  securing  to  Englishmen  a  new  mar- 
ket for  slaves  in  Spanish  America.     In  1729,  George 
II.  recommended  a  provision,  at  the  national  expense, 
for  the  African  forts ;  and  the  recommendation  was 
followed.    At  last,  in  1749,  to  give  the  highest  activity 
to  the  trade,  every  obstruction  to  private  enterprise  was 
removed,  and  the  ports  of  Africa  were  laid  open  to 
English  competition;  for  "the  slave  trade" — such  are 
23Geo.  the  words  of  the  statute — "the  slave  trade  is  very  ad- 
int.    vantageous  to  Great  Britain." — "  The  British  senate," 
wrote  one  of  its  members,  in  February,  1750,  "have 
wS™ofe  this  fortnight  been  pondering  methods  to  make  more 
!i!a438.   effectual  that  horrid  traffic  of  selling  negroes.     It  has 
*Feb    aPPeared  to  us   that  six-and-forty  thousand  of  these 
25-     wretches  are  sold  every  year  to  our  plantations  alone." 
But,  while  the  partial  monopoly  of  the  African  com- 
pany was  broken  down,  and  the  commerce  in  men  was 
opened  to  the  competition  of  Englishmen,  the  monop- 
oly of  British  subjects  was  rigidly  enforced  against  for- 
eigners.    That  Englishmen  alone   might  monopolize 
all  wealth  to  be  derived  from  the  trade,  Holt  and  Pol- 
lexfen,  and  eight  other  judges,  in  pursuance  of  an  order 
in  council,  had  given  their  opinion  "  that  negroes  are 
merchandise,"  and  that  therefore  the  act  of  navigation 
was  to  be  extended  to  the  English  trade  in  them,  to 
the  exclusion  of  alians. 


ENGLAND  COMPELS  THE  COLONIES  TO  RECEIVE  NEGROES.      415 

The   same  policy  was  manifested  in  the  relations  CHAP 
between  the  English  crown  and  the  colonies.     Land  -^v^- 
from  the  public  domain  was  given  to  emigrants,  in  one 
West  India  colony,  at  least,  on  condition  that  the  resi- 
dent owner  would  "keep  four  negroes  for  every  hun- 
dred acres."    The  eighteenth  century  was,  as  it  were, 
ushered  in  by  the  royal  instruction  of  Queen  Anne  to  the  17  02 
governor  of  New  York  and  New  Jersey,  "to  give  due 
encouragement  to  merchants,  and  in  particular  to  the 
royal  African  company  of  England."     That  a  similar 
instruction  was  given  generally,  is  evident  from  the 
apology  of  Spotswood   for  the  small  importations  of 
slaves   into   Virginia.      In    that    commonwealth,    the 
planters  beheld  with  dismay  the  increase  of  negroes. 
A   tax    checks    their    importation  ;    and,    in    1726,  1726. 
Hugh  Drysdale,  the   deputy-governor,  announces   to     •$ 
the  house   that   "the  interfering  interest  of  the  Afri- 
can  company  has  obtained  the  repeal  of  that   law." 
Long  afterwards,  a  statesman  of  Virginia,  in  full  view 
of  the  course  of  colonial  legislation  and  English  coun- 
teracting authority,  unbiased  by  hostility  to  England, 
bore  true  testimony  that  "the  British  government  con- 
stantly checked  the  attempts  of  Virginia  to  put  a  stop  Madison 
to  this  infernal  traffic."     On  whatever  ground  Virginia  uuS 
opposed  the  trade,  the  censure  was  just. 

The  white  man,  emigrating,  became  a  dangerous 
freeman :  it  was  quite  sure  that  the  negroes  of  that 
century  would  never  profess  republicanism  ;  their  pres- 
ence in  the  colonies  increased  dependence.  This  rea- 
soning was  avowed  by  "a  British  merchant,"  in  1745,  1745 
in  a  political  tract  entitled  "  The  African  Slave  Trade 
the  great  Pillar  and  Support  of  the  British  Plantation 
Trade  in  America."  "  Were  it  possible  for  white  men 
to  answer  the  end  of  negroes  in  planting,"  it  is  there 
contended,  "our  colonies  would  interfere  with  the 


ENGLAND  SEEKS  A  MONOPOLY  OF  THE  SLAVE  TRADE. 

CHAP,  manufactures  of  these  kingdoms.  In  such  case,  in- 
^v^  deed,  we  might  have  just  reason  to  dread  the  pros- 
perity of  our  colonies ;  but  while  we  can  supply  them 
abundantly  with  negroes,  we  need  be  under  no  such 
™l&nf~  apprehensions."  "  Negro  labor  will  keep  our  British 
Trade,  colonies  in  a  due  subserviency  to  the  interest  of  their 
and  k  mother  country ;  for,  while  our  plantations  depend  only 
on  planting  by  negroes,  our  colonies  can  never  prove 
injurious  to  British  manufactures,  never  become  inde- 
pendent of  their  kingdom."  This  policy  of  England 
knew  no  relenting.  "My  friends  and  I,"  wrote  Ogle- 
thorpe,  "  settled  the  colony  of  Georgia,  and  by  charter 
were  established  trustees.  We  determined  not  to  suf- 
fer slavery  there ;  but  the  slave  merchants  and  their 
adherents  not  only  occasioned  us  much  trouble,  but  at 
last  got  the  government  to  sanction  them."  South  Car- 
olina, in  1760,  from  prudential  motives,  attempted  re- 
strictions, and  gained  only  a  rebuke  from  the  English 
ministry.  Great  Britain,  steadily  rejecting  every  colo- 
nial limitation  of  the  slave  trade,  instructed  the  gov- 
ernors, on  pain  of  removal,  not  to  give  even  a  temporary 
assent  to  such  laws ;  and,  but  a  year  before  the  pro- 
hibition of  the  slave  trade  by  the  American  congress,  in 
1776,  the  earl  of  Dartmouth  illustrated  the  tendency 
of  the  colonies  and  the  policy  of  England,  by  address- 
ing to  a  colonial  agent  these  memorable  words : — "We 
cannot  allow  the  colonies  to  check,  or  discourage  in 
any  degree,  a  traffic  so  berteficial  to  the  nation." 

The  assiento  treaty,  originally  extorted  from  Spain 
by  force  of  arms,  remained  a  source  of  jealousy  be- 
tween that  kingdom  and  England.  Other  collisions 
were  preparing  on  the  American  frontier,  where  Spain 
resolutely  claimed  to  extend  her  jurisdiction  north  of 
the  Savannah  River,  as  far,  at  least,  as  St.  Helena 
Sound.  The  foundation  of  St.  Augustine  had  pre- 


FOUNDATION  OF  GEORGIA,  THE  THIRTEENTH  COLONY.   417 

ceded  that  of  Charleston  by  a  century ;  natic  nal  pride  CFIAP 

still  clung  to  the  traditions  of  the  wide  extent  of  Flori- 

da ;  the  settlement  of  the  Scottish  emigrants  at  Port 
Royal  had  been  successfully  dispersed;  Indians  arid 
negroes  were  received  as  ready  allies  against  English 
encroachments;  and  it  was  feebleness  alone  which  had 
tolerated  the  advancement  of  the  plantations  of  South 
Carolina  towards  the  Savannah.  Meantime,  England 
resolved  to  pass  that  stream,  and  carry  her  flag  still 
nearer  the  walls  of  St.  Augustine. 

The  resolution  was  not  hastily  adopted.     In  1717, 
a  proposal  was  brought  forward,  by  one  whose  father  Mount- 
had  been  interested  in   the  unfortunate  enterprise  of  *£?„£?" 
Lord  Cardross,  to  plant  a  new  colony  south  of  Caroli- 
na,  in  the  region  that  was  heralded  as  the  most  de- 
lightful  country  of  the  universe.     The  land  was  to  be 
tilled  by  British  and  Irish  laborers,  exclusively,  without 
"  the  dangerous  help  of  blackamoors."     Three  years 
afterwards,  in  the  excited  season  of  English  stockjob- 
bing and  English  anticipations,  the  suggestion  was  re- 
vived.    When  Carolina  became,  by  purchase,  a  royal  1728 
province,  Johnson,  its  governor,  was  directed  to  mark  ££££ 
out  townships  as  far  south  as  the  Alatamaha ;  and,  in  a  CMO- 
1731,  a  site  was  chosen  for  a  colony  of  Swiss  in  the    1731' 
ancient  land  of  the  Yamassees,  but  on  the  left  bank  of 
the  Savannah.     The  country  between  the  two  rivers 
was  still  a  wilderness,  over  which  England  held  only  a 
nominal  jurisdiction,  when   the  spirit  of  benevolence 
formed  a  partnership  with  the  selfish  passion  for  ex-    J^ 
tended    territory,  and,  heedless  of  the  objection   that  tlehc!J. 
"the  colonies  would  grow  too   great"  for   England,  £eyrfar' 
"and  throw  off  their  dependency,"  resolved  to  plant  gc«Ji!>"fc> 
the  sunny  clime  with  the  children  of  misfortune, — with 
those  who  in  England  had  neither  land  nor  shelter, 
VOL.  in.  53 


shfn 

Georgia, 


418         ENGLAND  ENCROACHES  ON  THE  TERRITORY  OF  SPAIK 

CHAP,  and  those  on  the  continent  to  whom,  as  Protestants 
~^  bigotry  denied  freedom  of  worship  and  a  home. 

In  the  days  when  protection  of  property  was  avowed 
to  be  the  end  of  government,  the  gallows  was  set  up  as 
Reasons  tne  penaity  for  a  petty  theft  ;  and  each  year,  in  Great 
Britain,  at  least  four  thousand  unhappy  men  were  im- 

• 

mured  in  prison  for  the  misfortune  of  poverty.  A  small 
debt  exposed  to  a  perpetuity  of  imprisonment;  one 
indiscreet  contract  doomed  the  miserable  dupe  to  life- 
8beerfbr°en  long  confinement.  The  subject  won  the  attention  of 
s-  James  Oglethorpe,  a  member  of  the  British  parliament  ; 
a  man  of  an  heroic  mind  and  a  merciful  disposition  ; 
in  the  full  activity  of  middle  life  ;  rich  in  varied  expe- 
rience ;  who  had  been  disciplined  alike  in  the  schools 
of  learning  and  action  ;  a  pupil  of  the  university  of 
Oxford  ;  an  hereditary  loyalist  ;  receiving  his  first 
commission  in  the  English  army  during  the  ascen- 
dency of  Bolingbroke  ;  a  volunteer  in  the  family  of 
Prince  Eugene  ;  present  at  the  siege  of  Belgrade,  and 
in  the  brilliant  campaign  against  the  Turks  on  the 
Danube.  To  him,  in  the  annals  of  legislative  philan- 
thropy, the  honor  is  due  of  having  first  resolved  to 
^moJt  rea*ress  the  griefs  that  had  so  long  been  immured 
ogi£f  from  the  public  gaze,  —  to  lighten  the  lot  of  debtors- 
Touched  with  the  sorrows  which  the  walls  of  a  prison 
could  not  hide  from  his  merciful  eye,  he  searched  into 
the  gloomy  horrors  of  jails, 

**  Where  sickness  pines,  where  thirst  and  hunger  burn, 
And  poor  misfortune  feels  the  lash  of  vice.1* 

In  1728,  he  invoked  the  interference  of  the  English 
parliament  ;  and,  as  a  commissioner  for  inquiring  into 
the  state  of  the  jails  in  the  kingdom,  his  benevolent 
zeal  persevered,  till,  "  from  extreme  misery,  he  restored 


FOUNDATION  OF  GEORGIA,  THE  THIRTEENTH  COLONY.   419 

to  light  and  freedom  multitudes,  who,  by  long  confine-  CHAP 

.X.  Jvl  V 

ment  for  debt,  were  strangers  and  helpless  in  the  coun-  ^>~ 
try  of  their  birth."  He  did  more.  For  them,  and  for 
persecuted  Protestants,  he  planned  an  asylum  and  a 
new  destiny  in  America,  where  former  poverty  would 
be  no  reproach,  and  where  the  simplicity  of  piety  could 
indulge  the  spirit  of  devotion,  without  fear  of  persecu- 
tion from  men  who  hated  the  rebuke  of  its  example. 

It  was  not  difficult  for  Oglethorpe  to  find  associates 
in  his  disinterested  purpose.  To  further  this  end,  a 
charter  from  George  II.,  dated  the  ninth  day  of  June,  1732 
1732,  erected  the  country  between  the  Savannah  and 
the  Alatamaha,  and  from  the  head-springs  of  those  riv- 
ers due  west  to  the  Pacific,  into  the  province  of  Geor- 
gia, and  placed  it,  for  twenty-one  years,  under  the 
guardianship  of  a  corporation,  "in  trust  for  the  poor."  ^c°} 
The  common  seal  of  the  corporation,  having  on  one  side  Georgia 
a  group  of  silk-worms  at  theif  toils,  with  the  motto,  Non 
sibi,  sed  aliis, — Not  for  themselves,  but  for  others, — ex- 
pressed the  disinterested  purpose  of  the  patrons,  who, 
by  their  own  request,  were  restrained  from  receiving 
any  grant  of  lands,  or  any  emolument  whatever.  On 
the  other  side  of  the  seal,  the  device  represented  two 
figures  reposing  on  urns,  emblematic  of  the  boundary 
rivers,  having  between  them  the  genius  of  "Georgia 
Augusta,"  with  a  cap  of  liberty  on  her  head,  a  spear 
in  one  hand,  the  horn  of  plenty  in  the  other.  But  the 
cap  of  liberty  was,  for  a  time  at  least,  a  false  emblem ; 
for  all  executive  and  legislative  power,  and  the  institu- 
tion of  courts,  were,  for  twenty-one  years,  given  exclu- 
sively to  the  trustees,  or  their  common  council,  who 
were  appointed  during  good  behavior.  The  trustees,  of(£or- 
men  of  benevolence  and  of  leisure,  ignorant  of  the  val- 
ue or  the  nature  of  popular  power,  held  these  grants 


420        ENGLAND   ENCROACHES  ON   THE    TERRITORY  OF    SPAIN. 

CHAP,  to  contain   but  "  proper  powers  for  establishing   and 

Jv  A.  1  \f • 

— ~-  governing  the  colony."  The  land,  open  to  Jews,  was 
closed  against  "  Papists."  At  the  head  of  the  coun- 
cil  stood  Shaftesbury,  fourth  earl  of  that  name  ;  but  its 
most  celebrated  member  was  Oglethorpe.  So  illustri- 
ous were  the  auspices  of  the  design,  that  hope  at  once 
painted  brilliant  visions  of  an  Eden  that  was  to  spring 
up  to  reward  the  ardor  of  such  disinterested  benevo- 
lence. The  kindly  sun  of  the  new  colony  was  to  look 
down  on  the  abundance  of  purple  vintages,  and  the 
silkworm  yield  its  thread  to  enrich  the  British  mer- 
chant, and'  employ  the  British  looms.  The  benevo- 
lence of  England  was  aroused ;  the  charities  of  an 
opulent  and  an  enlightened  nation  were  to  be  concen- 
trated on  the  new  plantation ;  individual  zeal  was 
kindled  in  its  favor;  the  Society  for  propagating  the 
Gospel  in  Foreign  Parts  sought  to  promote  its  inter- 
ests; and  parliament  shovted  its  good  will  by  at  once 
contributing  ten  thousand  pounds. 

But,  while  others  gave  to  the  design  their  leisure, 
their  prayers,  or  their  wealth,  Oglethorpe,  heedless  of 
danger,  devoted  himself  to  its  fulfilment.  In  Novem- 

Nov.    ber,   1732,  embarking  with    about   one    hundred  and 

17_<28 

1733*.  twenty  emigrants,  he  began  the  voyage  to  America,  and 

J*g'    in  fifty-seven  days  arrived  off  the  bar  of  Charleston. 

riSi  Accepting  a  hasty  welcome,  he  sailed  directly  for  Port 

Jan.    Royal.     While  the  colony  was  landing  at   Beaufort, 

"  its    patron    ascended  the  boundary  river  of  Georgia, 

and  chose  for  the  site  of  his  chief  town  the  high  blulF 

on  which  Savannah  now  stands.     At  the  distance  of 

a  half  mile  dwelt  the   Yamacraws,  a  branch  of  the 

Muskhogees,  who,  with  Tomo-chichi,  their  chieftain, 

sought    security    by   an    alliance    with    the    English. 

"  Here  is  a  little  present,"  said  the  red  man,  as  he 


FOUNDATION  OF  GEORGIA,  THE  THIRTEENTH  COLONY.   421 

offered  a  buffalo  skin,  painted  on  the  inside  with  the 
head  and  feathers  of  an  eagle.  "  The  feathers  of  the 
eagle  are  soft,  and  signify  love;  the  buffalo  skin  is  1733 
warm,  and  is  the  emblem  of  protection.  Therefore 
love  and  protect  our  little  families."  On  the  first  day 
of  February,  or,  according  to  the  new  style  of  compu- 
tation, on  the  twelfth,  the  colonists,  on  board  of  a 
small  sloop  and  periaguas,  arrived  at  the  place  intended 
for  the  town,  and  before  evening  encamped  on  shore 
near  the  edge  of  the  river.  Four  beautiful  pines  pro- 
tected the  tent  of  Oglethorpe,  who,  for  near  a  twelve-  Kew 
month,  sought  no  other  shelter.  In  the  midst  of  the  to°GeS. 

gia. 

pleasant  region,  the  streets  of  Savannah  were  laid  out 
with  greatest  regularity ;  in  each  quarter  a  public 
square  was  reserved ;  the  houses  were  planned  and 
constructed  on  one  model — each  a  frame  of  sawed  tim- 
ber, twenty-four  feet  by  sixteen,  floored  with  rough 
deals,  the  sides  with  feather-edged  boards  unplaned, 
and  the  roof  shingled.  Such  a  house  Oglethorpe  af- 
terwards hired  as  his  residence,  when  in  Savannah. 
Erelong  a  walk,  cut  through  the  native  woods,  led  to 
the  large  garden  on  the  river  side,  destined  as  a  nurse- 
ry of  European  fruit  and  of  the  wonderful  products  of  Voll 
America.  Thus  began  the  commonwealth  of  Georgia.  uerfskpe™ 
The  humane  reformer  of  prison  discipline  was  already  18* ' 
the  father  of  a  state,  "  the  place  of  refuge  for  the  dis- 
tressed people  of  Britain  and  the  persecuted  Protes- 
tants of  Europe." 

The  fame  of  the  hero  penetrated  the  wilderness ; 
and,  in  May,  the  chief  men  of  the  eight  towns  of  the 
Lower  Muskhogees,  accepting  his  invitation,  came 
down  to  make  an  alliance.  Long  King,  the  tall  and 
aged  civil  chief  of  the  Oconas,  spoke  for  them  all : — 
"  The  Great  Spirit,  who  dwells  every  where  around, 


422       ENGLAND   ENCROACHES   ON  THE   TERRITORY   OF  SPAIN 

CHAP,  and  gives  breath  to  all  men,  sends  the  English  to  in- 
- — ~  struct  us."  Claiming  the  country  south  of  the  Savan- 
1733  nan?  ne  bac|e  the  strangers  welcome  to  the  lands  which 
his  nation  did  not  use ;  and,  in  token  of  sincerity,  he 
laid  eight  bundles  of  buckskins  at  Oglethorpe's  feet. 
"  Tomo-chichi,"  he  added,  "  though  banished  from  his 
nation,  has  yet  been  a  great  warrior ;  and  for  his  wis- 
dom and  courage,  the  exiles  chose  him  their  king." 
Tomo-chichi  entered  timorously,  and,  bowing  very 
low,  gave  thanks  that  he  was  still  permitted  "  to  look 
for  good  land  among  the  tombs  of  his  ancestors."  The 
chief  of  Coweta  stood  up  and  said,  "We  are  come 
twenty-five  days'  journey  to  see  you.  I  was  never 
willing  to  go  down  to  Charleston,  lest  I  should  die  on 
the  way;  but  when  I  heard  you  were  come,  and  that 
you  are  good  men,  I  came  down,  that  I  might  hear 
good  things."  He  then  gave  leave  to  the  exiles  to 
summon  the  kindred  that  loved  them  out  of  each  of 
the  Creek  towns,  that  they  might  dwell  together. 
"Recall,"  he  added,  "the  Yamassees,  that  they  may 
be  buried  in  peace  among  their  ancestors,  and  may  see 
their  graves  before  they  die."  On  the  first  of  June, 
a  treaty  of  peace  was  signed,  by  which  the  English 
claimed  sovereignty  over  the  land  of  the  Creeks  as  far 
south  as  the  St.  Johns ;  and  the  chieftains  departed 
laden  with  presents. 

A  Cherokee  appeared  among  the  English.  "Fear 
nothing,"  said  Oglethorpe,  "  but  speak  freely : "  and 
the  mountaineer  answered,  "I  always  speak  freely. 
Why  should  I  fear  ?  I  am  now  among  friends ;  I  nev- 
er feared  even  among  my  enemies."  And  friendly 
relations  were  cherished  with  the  Cherokees.  In  the 
'/uly.  Bowing  year,  Red  Shoes,  a  Chocta  chief,  proposed 
commerce.  "We  came  a  great  way,"  said  he,  "and 


FOUNDATION  OF  GEORGIA,  THE  THIRTEENTH  COLONY.   423 

we  are  a  great  nation.     The  French  are  building  forts  CHAP. 

XXIV 

about  us,  against  our  liking.     We  have  long  traded  -  —  *-' 
with  them,  but  they  are  poor  in  goods  ;  we  desire  that 
a  trade  may  be  opened  between  us  and  you."     And 
when  commerce  with  them  was  begun,  the  English    1741 
coveted  the  harbors  on  the  Gulf  of  Mexico. 

The  good  faith  of  Oglethorpe,  in  the  offers  of  peace, 
his  noble  mien  and  sweetness  of  temper,  conciliated 
the  confidence  of  the  red  men  ;  and  he,  in  his  turn, 
was  pleased  with  their  simplicity,  and  sought  for 
means  to  clear  the  glimmering  ray  of  their  minds,  to 
guide  their  bewildered  reason,  and  teach  them  to  know 
the  God  whom  they  ignorantly  adored. 

While  the  neighboring  province  of  South  Carolina 
displayed  "a  universal  zeal  for  assisting  its  new  ally 
and  bulwark,"  the  persecuted  Protestants  who  dwelt  von 
in  Salzburg  heard  tbe  message  of  hope,  and,  on  the  Nach- 
invitation  of  the  Society  in  England  for  propagating 
the  Gospel,  prepared  to  emigrate  to  the  Savannah.  A 
free  passage  ;  provisions  in  Georgia  for  a  whole  season  ; 
land  for  themselves  and  their  children,  free  for  ten 
years,  then  to  be  held  for  a  small  quitrent  ;  the  privi- 
leges of  native  Englishmen;  freedom  of  worship;  — 
these  were  the  promises  made,  accepted,  and  honora- 
bly fulfilled.  On  the  last  day  of  October,  1733,  "the 
evangelical  community,"  —  well  supplied  with  Bibles 
and  hymn-books,  catechisms  and  books  of  devotion,  — 
conveying  in  one  wagon  their  few  chattels,  in  two  other 
covered  ones  their  feebler  companions,  and  especially 
I  heir  little  ones,  —  after  a  discourse,  and  prayer,  and 
benedictions,  —  cheerfully,  and  in  the  name  of  God, 
began  their  pilgrimage.  History  need  not  stop  to  tell 
what  charities  cheered  them  on  their  journey,  what 
towns  were  closed  against  them  by  Roman  Catholic 


424       ENGLAND   ENCROACHES   ON   THE   TERRITORY    OF  SPAIN. 

CHAP  magistrates,  or  how  they  entered   Frankfort   on  the 
— ^  Maine,    two  by   two,  in    solemn    procession,   singing 
1733   spiritual  songs.     As  they  floated  down  the  Maine,  and 
between    the    castled   crags,  the    vineyards,   and    the 
white-walled  towns  that  adorn  the  banks  of  the  Rhine, 
their  conversation,  amidst  hymns  and  prayers,  was  of 
justification,  and  of  sanctification,  and  of  standing  fast 
Nov.   in  the  Lord.    At  Rotterdam,  they  were  joined  by  two 
preachers,   Bolzius  and    Gronau,   both   disciplined   in 
Nov.   charity  at  the  Orphan  House  in  Halle.     A  passage  of 
Dec.    six  days  carried  them  from  Rotterdam  to  Dover,  where 
a      several  of  the  trustees  visited  them  and  provided  con- 
siderately for  their  wants.     In  January,  1 734,  they  set 
Reise    sail  for  their  new  homes.     The  majesty  of  the  ocean 

Diari-  J         J 

um-  quickened  their  sense  of  God's  omnipotence  and  wis- 
dom; and,  as  they  lost  sight  of  land,  they  broke  out 
into  a  hymn  to  his  glory.  The  setting  sun,  after  a 
calm,  so  kindled  the  sea  and  the  sky,  that  words 
could  not  express  their  rapture;  and  they  cried  out, 
"How  lovely  the  creation!  How  infinitely  lovely  the 
Creator ! "  When  the  wind  was  adverse,  they  prayed ; 
and,  as  it  changed,  one  opened  his  mind  to  the  other 
on  the  power  of  prayer,  even  the  prayer  "of  a  man  sub- 
ject to  like  passions  as  we  are."  As  the  voyage  ex- 
cited weariness,  a  devout  listener  confessed  himself  to 
be  an  unconverted  man ;  and  they  reminded  him  of  the 
promise  to  him  that  is  poor  and  of  a  contrite  spirit,  and 
trembleth  at  the  word.  As  they  sailed  pleasantly, 
with  a  favoring  breeze,  at  the  hour  of  evening  prayer, 
they  made  a  covenant  with  each  other,  like  Jacob  of 
old,  and  resolved,  by  the  grace  of  Christ,  to  cast  all  the 
strange  gods  which  were  in  their  hearts  into  the  depths 
of  the  soa.  A  storm  grew  so  high,  that  not  a  sail  could 

18.'    be  set ;  and  they  raised  their  voices  in  prayer  and  song 


FOUNDATION  OF  GEORGIA,  THE  THIRTEENTH  COLONY.   425 

amidst  the  tempest  ;  for  to  love  the  Lord  Jesus  as  a  CHAP 
brother  gave  consolation.  At  Charleston  Oglethorpe  -  —  ^ 
bade  them  welcome  ;  and,  in  five  days  more,  the  way- 


Diari- 

uj;>Nin 


faring  men,  whose  home  was  beyond  the  skies,  pitched     18. 
their  tents  near  Savannah. 

It  remained  to  select  for  them  a  residence.  To 
cheer  their  principal  men,  as  they  toiled  through  the 
forest  and  across  brooks,  Oglethorpe,  having  provided 
horses,  himself  joined  the  little  party.  By  the  aid  of 
blazed  trees  and  Indian  guides,  he  made  his  way 
through  morasses  ;  a  fallen  tree  served  as  a  bridge  over 
a  stream,  which  the  horses  swam,  for  want  of  a  ford  ;  Reck, 

t 

at  night,  he  encamped  with  them  abroad  round  a  fire, 
and  shared  every  fatigue,  till  the  spot  for  their  village 
was  chosen,  and,  like  the  little  stream  which  formed 
its  border,  was  named  Ebenezer.  There  they  built  Ogle 
their  dwellings,  and  there  they  resolved  to  raise  a  col- 
umn  of  stone,  in  token  of  gratitude  to  God,  whose  prov- 
idence  had  brought  them  safely  to  the  ends  of  the  earth. 

In  the  same  year,  the  town  of  Augusta  was  laid  out,  1734 
soon  to  become  the  favorite  resort  of  Indian  traders.  °l,n"lLx* 
The  good  success  of  Oglethorpe  made  the  colony  in- 
crease rapidly  by  volunteer  emigrants.     "His  under 
taking  will  succeed,"  said  Johnson,  the  governor  of    Nach- 
South  Carolina;  "for  he  nobly  devotes  all  his  powers  Ge™j?iV 
to  serve  the  poor,  and  rescue  them  from  their  wretch-  "J^c*, 
edness.''     "  He  bears  a  great  love  to  the  servants  and 
children   of    God,"    wrote    the    pastor   of  Ebenezer.    STalf 
"He  has  taken  care  of  us  to  the  utmost  of  his  ability." 
"God  has  so  blessed  his  presence  and  his  regulations 
in  the  land,  that  others  would  not  in  many  years  have 
accomplished  what  he  has  brought  about  in  one." 

At  length,  in  April,  1734,  after  a  residence  in  Amer- 
ica of  about  fifteen  months,  Oglethorpe  sailed  for  Eng- 
VOL.  HI.  64 


IcHflir 


426       ENGLAND   ENCROACHES   ON    THE    TERRITORY   OF  SPAIN. 

CHAP,  land,  taking  with  him  Tomo-chichi  and  others  of  the 

XXIV 

^-~*  Creeks,  to  do  homage  at  court,  and  to  invigorate  the 
confidence  of  England  in  the  destiny  of  the  new  colo- 
ny, which  was  shown  to  possess  the  friendship  of  the 
surrounding  Indian  nations. 

His  absence  left  Georgia  to  its  own  development. 
For  its  franchises,  it  had  only  the  system  of  juries; 
and,  though  it  could  not  prosper  but  by  self-reliance 
legislation  by  its  own  representatives  was  not  begun 

The  laws,  too,  which  the  trustees  had  instituted, 
were  irksome.  To  prevent  the  monopoly  of  lands,  to 
insure  an  estate  even  to  the  sons  of  the  unthrifty,  to 
strengthen  a  frontier  colony,  the  trustees,  deceived  by 
reasonings  from  the  system  of  feudal  law,  and  by  their 
own  prejudices  as  members  of  the  landed  aristocracy 
of  England,  had  granted  lands  only  in  tail  male.  Here 
was  a  grievance  that  soon  occasioned  a  just  discontent, 

Another  regulation,  which  prohibited  the  introduc- 
tion of  ardent  spirits,  could  not  be  enforced :  it  led 
only  to  clandestine  traffic. 

Jj?;        A  third  rule  forbade  the  introduction  of  slaves.    "No 
sermon  settlement  was  ever  before  established  on  so  humane 


to  rec- 
end 


a  plan*"     Such  was  the  praise  of  Georgia  uttered  in 
London  in  1734.     "  Slavery,  the  misfortune,  if  not  the 
1733-  dishonor,  of  other  plantations,  is  absolutely  proscribed. 
}p^'  Let  avarice  defend  it  as  it  will,  there  is  an  honest 
16-     reluctance  in  humanity  against  buying  and  selling,  and 
regarding  those  of  our  own  species  as  our  wealth  and 
possessions."     "  The  name  of  slavery  is  here  unheard 
^^    and  every  inhabitant  is  free  from  unchosen  masters  and 
oppression."     And  the  testimony  of  Oglethorpe,  who 
J£ieraai.  yet  had  once  been  willing  to  employ  negroes,  and  once, 
mSnot  at  least>  ordered  the  sale  of  a  slave,  explains  the  mo- 
? <$L'  tive  of  the   prohibition.     "  Slavery,"   he  relates,    "  is 


FOUNDATION  OF  GEORGIA,  THE  THIRTEENTH  COLONY.   427 

against  the  gospel,  as  well  as  the  fundamental  law  oi  CHAP. 
England.    We  refused,  as  trustees,  to  make  a  law  per-  ~~^~ 
mitting  such  a  horrid  crime."    "  The  purchase  of  negroes 
is  forbidden,"  wrote  Von  Reck,  "on  account  of  the  vi- 
cinity of  the  Spaniards;"  and  this  was  doubtless  "the 
governmental  view."    The  colony  was  also  "an  asylum 
to  receive  the  distressed.     It  was  necessary,  therefore,  voyage 

i  •  i  r          i  ln  Ge.of 

not  to  permit  slaves  in  such  a  country;  tor  slaves  starve  g^11;^ 
the  poor  laborer."     But,  after  a  little  more  than  two 
years,  several  "of  the  better  sort  of  people  in  Savan- 
nah "  addressed  a  petition  to  the  trustees  "  for  the  use  Ta^fer» 
of  negroes." 

During  his  stay  in  England,  Oglethorpe  won  univer-  1734 
sal  favor  for  his  colony,  the  youngest  child  of  the  colo- 
nial enterprise  of  England.  Parliament  continued  its 
benefactions ;  the  king  expressed  interest  in  a  province 
which  bore  his  name.  While  the  jealousy  of  the  mari- 
time powers  on  the  continent  was  excited,  new  emi- 
grants continued  to  be  sent  from  England.  The  voice 
of  mercy  reached  the  Highlands  of  Scotland ;  and  a 
company  of  Gaelic  mountaineers,  as  brave  as  the 
bravest  warriors  of  the  Creek  nation,  some  of  them 
kindred  to  the  loyalists  who  fell  victims  to  their  fidelity 
to  the  Stuarts,  embarked  for  America,  and  established 
New  Inverness,  in  Darien, 

"Where  wild  Altama  murmured  to  their  woe." 

Within  a  few  weeks,  a  new  company  of  three  1730 
hundred  emigrants,  conducted  by  Oglethorpe  himself, 
whose  care  of  them  during  the  voyage  proved  him  as 
considerate  as  he  was  brave,  ascended  a  rising  ground, 
not  far  from  Tybee  Island,  "  where  they  all  knelt  and 
returned  thanks  to  God  for  having  safely  arrived  in 
Georgia."  Among  that  group  was  a  reinforcement  of 
Moravians; — men  who  had  a  faith  above  fear;  "whose 


428        ENGLAND   ENCROACHES   ON    THZ   TERRITORY    OF  SPALN. 

CHAP  wives  and  children   even  were  not   afraid   to  die ; " 

A.vV.  1  V. 

whose  simplicity  and  solemnity,  in  their  conferences 

1736  anc|  prayerS)  seemed  to  revive  the  primitive  "assem- 
blies, where  form  and  state  were  not,  but  Paul,  the 
tent-maker,  or  Peter,  the  fisherman,  presided  with  the 
demonstration  of  the  Spirit."  There,  too,  were  John 
and  Charles  Wesley, — the  latter  selected  as  the  secre- 
tary to  Oglethorpe,  the  former  eager  to  become  an 
apostle  to  the  Indians, — fervent  enthusiasts,  who,  by 
their  own  confession,  were  not  yet  disciplined  to  a 
peaceful  possession  of  their  souls.  "That  they  were 
simple  of  heart,  but  yet  that  their  ideas  were  disturbed," 
was  the  judgment  of  Zinzendorf.  "Our  end  in  leav- 
ing our  native  country,"  said  they,  "is  not  to  gain 
riches  and  honor,  but  singly  this — to  live  wholly  to  the 
glory  of  God."  They  desired  to  make  Georgia  a  re- 
ligious colony,  having  no  theory  but  devotion,  no  am- 
bition but  to  quicken  the  sentiment  of  piety.  The 
reformation  of  Luther  and  Calvin  had  included  a  po- 
litical revolution ;  its  advocates  went  abroad  on  the 
whirlwind,  eager  to  overthrow  the  institutions  which 
time  had  consecrated  and  selfishness  perverted.  The 
age  in  which  religious  and  political  excitements  were 
united,  had  passed  away;  with  the  period  of  com- 
mercial influence  fanaticism  had  no  sympathy.  Mystic 
piety,  more  intense  by  its  aversion  to  the  theories  of 
the  eighteenth  century,  appeared  as  the  rainbow;  and 
Wesley  was  as  the  sower,  who  comes  after  the  clouds 
have  been  lifted  up,  and  the  floods  have  subsided,  and 
scatters  his  seed  in  the  serene  hour  of  peace.  The  new 
devotees,  content  to  remain  under  the  guardianship  of 
the  established  government,  sought  to  enjoy  the  exqui- 
site delights  of  religious  sensibility,  not  to  overthrow 
dynasties,  or  to  break  the  bonds  of  colonial  depend- 


FOUNDATION  OF  GEORGIA.     THE  WESLEYS.     WHJTEFIELD.      429 

ence.     By  John  Wesley,    therefore,  who   resided   in  CHAP. 

America  less  than  two  years,  no  share  in  moulding  the  «~ 

political  institutions  of  Georgia  was  desired  or  exerted. 
As  he  strolled  through  natural  avenues  of  palmettoes 
and  evergreen  hollies,  and  woods  sombre  with  hang- 
ing moss,  his  heart  gushed  forth  in  addresses  to  God. 

u  Is  there  a  thing  beneath  the  sun, 

That  strives  with  Thee  my  heart  to  share  ? 
Ah !  tear  it  thence,  and  reign  alone, — 
The  Lord  of  every  motion  there." 

The  austerity  of  his  maxims  involved  him  in  contro- 
versies with  the  mixed  settlers  of  Georgia:  and  his 
residence  in  America  preceded  his  influence  on  the 
religious  culture  of  its  people.  His  brother  was 
still  less  suited  to  shape  events :  fainting  under  fa- 
tigue, he  sighed  for  sympathy  ;  the  privations  and 
hardships  of  the  wilderness,  among  rough  associates, 
plunged  his  gentle  nature  into  the  depths  of  melan- 
choly and  homesickness ;  and,  at  this  time,  his  jour- 
nal, of  which  extracts  have  unwisely  been  made  pub- 
lic, is  not  a  record  of  events  around  him,  but  rather  a 
chronicle  of  what  passed  within  himself — the  ground- 
less jealousies  of  a  pure  mind,  rendered  suspicious  by 
pining  disease.  When  afterwards  George  Whitefield 
came,  his  intrepid  nature  did  not  lose  its  cheerfulness 
in  the  encounter  with  the  wilderness;  his  eager  be- 
nevolence, led  "by  the  example  of  the  Moravians  and 
the  fame  of  the  Orphan  House  at  Halle,  founded  and 
sustained  an  orphan  house  at  Savannah  by  contribu- 
tions which  his  eloquence  extorted.  He  became  more 
nearly  identified  with  America,  visited  all  the  provinces 
from  Florida  to  the  northern  frontier,  and  made  his 
grave  in  New  England ;  but  he,  also,  swayed  no  legis- 
latures, and  is  chiefly  remembered  for  his  fervor  and 
his  power  of  melting  the  multitude. 


430        ENGLAND    ENCROACHES   ON   THE  TERRITORY   OF   SPAIN. 

CHAP       At  once,  Oglethorpe  visited  the  Moravians  at  Eben- 

X.  A.  I  V 

— —  ezer,  to  praise  their  good  husbandry,  and  to  select  the 

s'te  °^  ^G1T  new  settlement — °f  which  the  lines  were 
no  sooner  drawn,  and  the  streets  laid  out  by  an  engi- 
neer, than  huts  covered  with  bark  rose  up  as  a  shelter, 
and  the  labors  of  the  field  were  renewed.  In  a  few 
file0"',  years,  the  produce  of  raw  silk  by  the  Germans  amount- 
ri^1.  ed  to  ten  thousand  pounds  a  year;  and  indigo  also 
became  a  staple.  In  earnest  memorials,  they  long  dep- 
recated the  employment  of  negro  slaves,  pleading  the 
ability  of  the  white  man  to  toil  even  under  the  suns 
of  Georgia.  Their  religious  affections  bound  them 
together  in  the  unity  of  brotherhood;  their  controver- 
sies were  decided  among  themselves ;  every  event  of 
life  had  its  moral ;  and  the  fervor  of  their  worship 
never  disturbed  their  healthy  tranquillity  of  judgment. 
They  were  cheerful,  and  at  peace. 

Feb.  From  the  Moravian  towns  Oglethorpe  hastened  to 
the  southward,  passing  in  a  scout  boat  through  the 
narrow  inland  channels,  which  delighted  the  eye  by 
their  clear,  sea-green  color  and  stillness,  and  were 
sheltered  by  woods  of  pines,  and  evergreen  oaks,  and 
cedars,  that  grew  close  to  the  water's  side.  On  the 
18."  second  day,  aided  by  the  zeal  of  his  own  men,  and  by 
Indians  skilful  in  using  the  oar,  he  arrived  at  St.  Si- 
mon's Island.  A  fire,  kindling  the  long  grass  on  an 
old  Indian  field,  cleared  a  space  for  the* streets  of  Fred- 
Moore's  erica;  and,  amidst  the  carols  of  the  great  numbers  of 
to^Tr~  the  red  and  the  mocking  bird,  and  the  noisy  mirth  of 
the  rice  bird,  a  fort  was  constructed  on  the  centre  of 
the  bluff,  with  four  bastions,  commanding  the  river, 
and  protecting  the  palmetto  cabins,  which,  appearing 
like  a  camp,  with  bowers  instead  of  tents,  and  smooth 
leaves,  of  a  pleasing  color,  for  canvass,  each  twenty 


FOUNDATION  OF  GEORGIA,  THE  THIRTEENTH  COLONY.   431 

feet  by  fourteen,  were  set  up  on  forks  and   poles  in  CHAP 

XXIV. 

regular  rows — a  tight  and  convenient  shelter  for  the  ' 

emigrants. 

It  was  but  ten  miles  from  Frederica  to  the  Scottish 
settlement  at  Darien.  To  give  heart  to  them  by  his 
presence,  Oglethorpe,  in  the  Highland  costume, 
sailed  up  the  Alatamaha;  and  all  the  Highlanders,  as 
they  perceived  his .  approach,  assembled,  with  their 
plaids,  broadswords,  targets,  and  fire-arms,  to  bid  him 
welcome.  The  brave  men  were  pleased  that  a  town 
was  to  be  settled,  and  ships  to  come  up,  so  near  them, 
and  also  that  they  now  had  a  communication  by  land 
with  Savannah.  The  "boggy  places"  proved  to  be 
not  quite  impassable  ;  "  two  rivers,"  that  had  no  ford, 
could  be  crossed  by  swimming ;  and  trees  had  been 
blazed  all  the  way  for  a  "horse-road." 

It  remained  to  vindicate  the  boundaries  of  Georgia.  1736 
The  messenger  who,  in  February,  had  been  despatched    vL 
to  St.  Augustine,  had  not  returned.     Oglethorpe   re- 
solved  himself  to  sustain  the  pretensions  of  Great  Brit- 
ain  to  the  territory  as  far  south  as  the  St.  John's,  and  the 
Highlanders  volunteered  their  service.    With  their  aid,     is. 
he  explored  the  channels  south  of  Frederica ;  and  on 
the  island  to  which  Tomo-chichi  gave  the  name  of 
Cumberland,  he  marked  out  a  fort  to  be  called  St. 
Andrew's.    But  Oglethorpe  still  pressed  forward  to  the 
south.     Passing  Amelia  Island,  and  claiming  the  St. 
John's  River  as  the  southern  boundary  of  the  territory 
possessed  by  the  Indian  subjects  of  England  at  the  time 
of  the  treaty  at  Utrecht,  on  the  southern  extremity  of 
the  island  at  the  entrance  of  that  stream,  where  myr- 
tles and  palmettoes  abounded,  and  wild  grape  vines, 
climbing  to  the  summit  of  trees,  formed  as  beautiful  Re^ta 
walks  as  art  could  have  designed,  he  planted  the  Fort  Te5r 
St.  George,  as  the  defence  of  the  British  frontier. 


432       ENGLAND    ENCROACHES   ON  THE   TERRITORY   OF  SPAIN. 

CHAP       Indignant  at  the  near  approach  of  the  English,  the 

'  Spaniards  of  Florida  threatened  opposition.    The  mes- 

1736.  sengers  of  Oglethorpe  were  detained  as  prisoners,  and 
he  resolved  to  claim  their  liberty.  The  rumors  of  his 
May  intended  expedition  had  reached  the  wilderness ;  and 
the  Uchees,  all  brilliantly  painted,  came  down  to  form 
an  alliance,  and  to  grasp  the  hatchet.  Long  speeches 
and  the  exchange  of  presents  were  followed  by  the 
war-dance.  Tomo-chichi  appeared,  also,  with  his  war- 
riors, ever  ready  to  hunt  the  buffalo  along  the  frontiers 
of  Florida,  or  to  engage  in  warfare  with  the  few  plant- 
ers on  the  peninsula;  and  an  embarkation  was  made 
for  the  purpose  of  regulating  the  southern  boundary  of 
the  British  colonies. 

Oglethorpe  knew  his  danger :  the  Spaniards  had 
been  tampering  with  his  allies,  and  were  willing  to  cut 
off  the  settlements  in  Georgia  at  a  blow ;  the  promised 
succors,  which  he  awaited  from  England,  had  not  ar 
rived.  But,  in  his  enthusiasm,  regardless  of  inces- 
sant toil,  regardless  of  himself, — unlike  Baltimore  and 
Penn,  securing  domains  not  to  his  family,  but  to  emi 
grants, — unlike  so  many  royal  governors  at  the  north, 
amassing  no  lands,  and  not  even  appropriating  to  him- 
self permanently  a  cottage,  or  a  single  lot  of  fifty  acres, 
— he  resolved  to  assert  the  claims  of  England,  and  pre- 
serve his  colony  as  the  bulwark  of  English  North  Amer- 
ica.  "To  me,"  said  he  to  Charles  Wesley,  "death  is 
TiST'  nothing."  "If  separate  spirits,"  he  added,  "regard  OIH 
little  concerns,  they  do  it  as  men  regard  the  follies  ot 
their  childhood."  The  people  at  Frederica  declared  to 
him  their  readiness  to  die  in  defence  of  the  place,  griev- 
ing only  at  his  exposure  to  danger  without  them. 

But,  for  that  season,  active  hostilities  were  avoided 
by  negotiation.  The  Spaniard  did,  indeed,  claim  per- 
emptorily the  whole  country  as  far  as  St.  Helena's 


FOUNDATION   OF    GEORGIA,    THE    THIRTEENTH    COLONY         433 

Sound;  but  the  English  envoys  at  St.  Augustine  were  CHAI 
set  free;  and,  if  the  English  post  on  St.  George  was  - — ^ 
abandoned,  St.  Andrew's,  commanding  the  approach  to  STC 
the  St.  Mary's,  was  maintained.     Hence  the  St.  Ma-  SgiJ 

J  Hist. 

ry's  ultimately  became  the  boundary  of  the  colony  of    ,^ 
Oglethorpe. 

The  friendship  of  the  red  men  insured  the  safety  of 
the  English  settlements.     The  Chickasas,  animated  by 
their  victory  over  the  Illinois  and  D'Artaguette,  came   July. 
down  to  narrate  how  unexpectedly  they  had  been  at- 
tacked, how  victoriously  they  had  resisted,  with  what 
exultations  they  had  consumed  their  prisoners  by  fire. 
Ever  attached  to  the  English,  they  now  sent  their  dep- 
utation of  thirty  warriors,  with  their  civil  sachem  and 
war  chief,  to  make  an  alliance  with  Oglethorpe,  whose 
fame  had  reached  the  Mississippi.     They  brought  for 
him  an  Indian  chaplet,  made  from  the  spoils  of  their 
enemies,  glittering  with  feathers  of  many  hues,  and    Von 
enriched    with    the    horns   of  buffaloes.      Thus    the  DhSiim 
Creeks,  the  Cherokees,  the  Chickasas,  were  his  un- 
wavering friends,  and   even  the  Choctas   had    cove- 
nanted   with   him   to   receive    English   traders.      To 
hasten  preparations   for  the  impending   contest  with 
Spain,  Oglethorpe  embarked  for  England.     He  could 
report  to  the  trustees,  "that  the   colony  was  doing    ? 
well :  that  Indians  from  seven  hundred  miles'  distance    Jan. 

19 

had  confederated  with  him,  and  acknowledged  the  au- 
thority of  his  sovereign." 

Receiving  a  commission  as  brigadier-general,  with  Aug 
a  military  command  extending  over  South  Carolina, 
Oglelhorpe  himself,  in  Great  Britain,  raised  and  disci- 
plined a  regiment ;  and,  after  an  absence  of  more  than 
a  year  and  a  half,  he  returned  to  Frederica.  There, 
.by  the  industry  of  his  soldiers,  the  walls  of  the  fortress 
VOL.  HI.  55 


we^ey, 


434       ENGLAND    ENCROACHES   ON   THE   TERRITORY   OF  SPAIN. 

CHAP,  were  completed.     Their   ivy-mantled   ruins   are   still 

XXIV. 

— ~  standing ;  and  the  village,  now  almost  a  deserted  one, 

1738.  in.  the  season  of  its  greatest  prosperity,  is  said  to  have 
contained  a  thousand  men. 

Oct  At  Savannah,  he  was  welcomed  by  salutes  and  bon- 
"  fires.  But  he  refused  any  alteration  in  the  titles  of 
land.  The  request  for  the  allowance  of  slaves  he 
rejected  sternly,  declaring  that,  if  negroes  should  be 
introduced  into  Georgia,  "he  would  have  no  further 
concern  with  the  colony ; "  and  he  used  his  nearly  ar- 
bitrary power  as  the  civil  and  military  head  of  the 
state,  the  founder  and  delegated  legislator  of  Georgia, 
to  interdict  negro  slavery.  The  trustees  applauded 
this  decision,  and,  notwithstanding  "  repeated  applica- 
tions,"  "persisted  in  denying  the  use  of  negroes," — 
even  though  many  of  the  planters,  believing  success 
impossible  with  "white  servants,"  prepared  to  desert 
the  colony. 

The  openness  and  fidelity  of  Oglethorpe  preserved 
the  affection  of  the  natives.  Muskhogees  and  Chicka- 
sas  came  round  him  once  more,  to  renew  their  cove- 
nants of  friendship.  The  former  had,  from  the  first, 
regarded  him  as  their  father;  and,  as  he  had  made 

st££«,  some  progress  in  their  language,  they  appealed  to  him 
directly  in  every  emergency. 

1739.  Nor  was  this  all.     In  the  summer  of  1739,  the  civil 
Aug'   and  war  chiefs  of  the  Muskhogees  held  a  general  coun- 
ste-     cil  in  Cowetas,  and  adjourned  it  to  Cusitas,  on  the 

Chattahouchee  ;  and  Oglethorpe,  making  his  way 
through  solitary  paths,  fearless  of  the  suns  of  summer, 
the  night  dews,  or  the  treachery  of  some  hireling  In- 
dian,  came  also  into  the  large  square  of  their  council- 
place,  to  distribute  presents  to  his  red  friends;  to 
renew  and  explain  their  covenants ;  to  address  them 


ENGLAND  ENCROACHES   ON   THE   COMMERCE  OF  SPAIN.       435 

in  words  of  affection  ;  and  to  smoke  with  their  nations  CHAP 
the  pipe  of  peace.    It  was  then  agreed,  that  the  an-  — — 
cient  love  of  the  tribes  to  the  British  king  should  re-  1739 
main  unimpaired ;  that  the  lands  from  the  St.  John's  to 
the  Savannah,  between  the  sea  and  the  mountains,  be- 
longed, of  ancient  right,  to  the  Muskhogees.     Their 
cession  to  the  English  of  the  land  on  the  Savannah,  as 
far  as  the  Ogeechee,  and  along  the  coast  to  the  St. 
John's,  as  far  into  the  interior  as  the  tide  flows,  was, 
with  a  few  reservations,  confirmed ;  and  the  entrance 
to  the  rest  of  their  domains  was  barred  forever  against 
the  Spaniards.     The  right  of  preemption  was  reserved 
for  the   trustees  of  Georgia  alone ;   nor   might  they 
enlarge  their  possessions,  except  with  the  consent  of 
the  ancient  proprietaries  of  the  soil. 

The  news  of  this  treaty  could  not  have  reached  Oct 
England  before  the  negotiations  with  Spain  were  ab- 
ruptly terminated.  Walpole  desired  peace ;  he  plead- 
ed for  it  in  the  name  of  national  honor,  of  justice,  and 
of  the  true  interests  of  commerce.  But  the  active 
English  mind  had  become  debauched  by  the  hopes  of 
sudden  gains,  and  soured  by  disappointment,  and  was 
now  resolved  on  illicit  commerce,  or  on  plunder  and 
conquest.  A  war  was  desired,  not  because  England 
insisted  on  cutting  logwood  in  the  Bay  of  Honduras, 
where  Spain  claimed  a  jurisdiction,  and  had  founded 
no  settlements ;  nor  because  the  South  Sea  company 
differed  with  the  king  of  Spain  as  to  the  balances 
of  their  accounts ;  nor  yet  because  the  boundary  be- 
tween Carolina  and  Florida  was  still  in  dispute ; — 
these  differences  could  all  have  been  adjusted; — but  iwL 
because  English  "  merchants  were  not  permitted  to 
smuggle  with  impunity."  A  considerable  part  of  the 
population  of  Jamaica  was  sustained  by  the  profits  of 
the  contraband  trade  with  Spanish  ports ;  the  annual 


436 


WAR    WITH    SPAIN. 


CHAP,  ship  to  Porto  Bello,  which  the  assiento  permitted,  was 

-X.-X.  1  V 

-  followed  at  a  distance  by  smaller  vessels  ;  and  fresh 
bales  of  goods  were  nightly  introduced  in  the  place  of 
those  that  had  been  discharged  during  the  day.  Not 
only  did  the  slave  ships  assist  in  violating  the  revenue 
laws  of  Spain  ;  British  smuggling  vessels,  also,  pre- 
tending distress,  would  claim  the  right  by  treaty  to 
enter  the  Spanish  harbors  on  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  In 
consequence,  the  colonial  commerce  of  Spain  was  al- 
most annihilated.  In  former  days,  the  tonnage  of  the 
fleet  of  Cadiz  had  amounted  to  fifteen  thousand  tons  ; 
it  was  now  reduced  to  two  thousand  tons,  and  had  no 
office  but  to  carry  the  royal  revenues  from  America. 

The  monarch  of  Spain,  the  victim  of  bigoted  scru- 
ples, busy  in  celebrating  auto-da-fes  and  burning  her- 
etics, and  regarding  as  an  affair  of  state  the  question 
who  should  be  revered  as  the  true  patron  saint  of  his 
kingdom,   was   at  last   roused   to   angry  impatience. 
1  His   complaints,   when   addressed  to  England,    were 
turned  aside  ;  and  when  the  Spanish  officers  showed 
vigor  in  maintaining  the  commercial  system  of  their 
sovereign,  the  English  merchants  resented    their  in- 
terference as  the  ebullitions  of  pride,  and  the  wanton 
m"n£  aggressions  of  tyranny.     One   Jenkins,  who   to   the 
™%    pursuits  of  smuggling  had  joined  maraudings  which 
P!7i2i.   might  well  have  been  treated  as  acts  of  piracy,  was 
M»hon.  summoned  to  the  bar  of  the  house  of  commons  to  give 
evidence.     The  tale,  which  he  was  disciplined  to  tell, 
of  the  loss  of  his  ears  by  Spanish  cruelty,  of  dishonor 
offered  to  the  British  flag  and  the  British  crown,  was 
received  without  distrust.     "  What  were  your  feelings, 
when  in  the  hands  of  such  barbarians  ?  "  was  asked  by 
a  member,  as  his  mutilated  ears  were  exhibited.     "  I 
commended   my  soul  to  my  God,"  answered  the  im- 
pudent fabler,  "  and  my  cause  to  my  country."  —  "  We 


south- 


ENGLAND   ENCROACHES   ON  THE    COMMERCE   OF   SPAIN.       437 

have  no  need  of  allies  to  enable  us  to  command  jus-  CHAP 
tice ;  the  story  of  Jenkins  will  raise  volunteers  : "  such  >^^ 
was  the  cry  of  Pulteney,  resolved  to  find  fault  at  any 
rate,  and  to  embarrass  and  overthrow  the  administra- 
tion of  Walpole.     The  clamor  of  orators  was  seconded 
by  the  greatest  poets  of  that  age :  Pope,  in  his  dying 
notes,  sneered  at  the  timidity  which  was  willing  to 
shun  giving  offence, 

"And  own  the  Spaniard  did  a  waggish  thing, 
Who  cropped  our  ears,  and  sent  them  to  the  king;" 

and  the  early  genius  of  Johnson,  in  more  energetic 
strains,  indignant  at  the  supporters  of  Walpole,  as  men 
who  explained  away  the  rights  of  their  country,  and 
openly  pleaded  for  pirates,  vindicated  the  right  of 
England  to  the  territory  which  Oglethorpe  had  colo- 
nized : — 

"Has  Heaven  reserved,  in  pity  to  the  poor, 
No  pathless  waste,  or  undiscovered  shore? 
No  secret  island  in  the  boundless  main? 
No  peaceful  desert  yet  unclaimed  by  Spain?" 

At  last,  a  convention  was  signed.  The  mutual  1739 
claims  for  damages  sustained  in  commerce  were  bal- 
anced and  liquidated ;  and,  while  the  king  of  Spain 
demanded  of  the  South  Sea  company  sixty-eight  thou- 
sand pounds,  as  due  to  him  for  his  share  of  their  profits, 
he  agreed  to  pay,  as  an  indemnity  to  British  merchants 
for  losses  sustained  by  unwarranted  seizures,  the  sum 
of  ninety-five  thousand  pounds.  On  these  questions 
no  dispute  remained  but  the  trivial  one,  whether  the 
British  government  should  guaranty  to  Spain  the  ac- 
knowledged debt  of  the  South  Sea  company.  The 
question  with  regard  to  the  boundaries  of  Florida  was 
equally  well  settled ;  the  actual  possessions  of  each  na- 
tion were  to  remain  without  change  till  commissioners 
could  mark  the  boundary.  In  other  words,  England 


438  WAR    WITH    SPAIN. 

CHAP   was  to  hold  undisturbed  jurisdiction  over  the  country 
^ —   as  far  as  the  mouth  of  the  St.  Mary's. 

It  is  to  the  honor  of  Walpole,  that  he  dared  to  resist 
the  clamor  of  the  mercantile  interest,  and.  opposing  the 
imbecile  duke  of  Newcastle,  boldly  advocated  the  ac- 
ceptance of  the  convention.  "It  requires  no  great 
abilities  in  a  minister,"  he  exclaimed,  "  to  pursue  such 
measures  as  may  make  a  war  unavoidable.  But  how 
many  ministers  have  known  the  art  of  avoiding  war 
by  making  a  safe  apd  honorable  peace?" — "The  con- 
vention," said  William  Pitt,  afterwards  Lord  Chatham, 
—giving  an  augury,  in  his  first  speech  on  American 
affairs,  that  his  political  career  might  be  marked  by 
energy,  but  not  by  an  elevated  political  faith, — "  The 
convention  is  insecure,  unsatisfactory,  and  dishonora- 
ble :  I  think,  from  my  soul,  it  is  nothing  but  a  stipula- 
tion for  national  ignominy.  The  complaints  of  your 
despairing  merchants,  the  voice  of  England,  has  con- 
demned it.  Be  the  guilt  of  it  upon  the  head  of  the 
advisers ;  God  forbid  that  this  committee  should  share 
the  guilt  by  approving  it."  What  judgment  posterity 
would  form  of  Pulteney,  was  foreshadowed  in  the  poe- 
try of  Akenside ;  but  there  was  no  need  of  awaiting 
the  judgment  of  posterity,  or  listening  to  the  indigna- 
tion of  contemporary  patriotism ;  Pulteney  and  his 
associates  stand  self-condemned.  The  original  docu- 
ments demonstrate  "the  extreme  injustice"  of  their 
opposition.  "  It  was  my  fortune,"  said  Edmund 
Burke,  "to  converse  with  those  who  principally  ex- 
cited that  clamor.  None  of  them,  n&,  not  one,  did 
in  the  least  defend  the  measure,  or  attempt  to  jus- 
tify their  conduct." 

1739        In  an  ill  hour  for  herself,  in  a  happy  one  for  Amer- 
23.     »ca,    England   declared   war   against   Spain.      If  the 


ANSON'S  EXPEDITION.   VERNON  AT  PORTO  BELLO.     439 


rightfulness  of  the  European  colonial  system  be  con- 
ceded,  the  declaration  was  a  wanton  invasion  of  it  for  ^ 
immediate  selfish  purposes  ;  but,  in  endeavoring  to 
open  the  ports  of  Spanish  America  to  the  mercantile 
enterprise  of  her  own  people,  England  was  also, 
though  unconsciously,  making  war  on  monopoly,  and 
advancing  the  cause  of  commercial  freedom.  The 
struggle  was  now,  not  for  European  conquests,  or  the 
balance  of  power,  or  religion,  but  for  the  opportunity 
of  commerce  with  the  colonies  of  Spain.  That  a  great 
nation,  like  Spain,  should  be  compelled  by  force  of 
arms  to  admit  a  contraband  trade  with  any  part  of  its 
dominions,  was  an  absurdity.  England,  therefore, 
could  gain  her  purpose  only  by  destroying  the  colonial 
system  of  Spain  ;  and  she  began  a  career,  which  could 
not  end  till  American  colonies  of  her  own,  as  well  as 
of  Spain,  should  obtain  independence. 

To  acquire   possession   of  the  richest  portions  of  1740 
Spanish    America,    Anson    was    sent,    with    a   small  1744 
squadron,  into  the  Pacific  ;  but  disasters  at  sea  com- 
pelled him  to  renounce  the  hope  of  conquest,  and  seek 
only  booty.     As  he  passed  Cape  Horn,  the  winds,  of 
which  the  fury  made  an  ordinary  gale  appear  as  a  gen- 
tle breeze,  scattered  his  ships;  one  after  another  of 
them  was  wrecked  or  disabled;  and  at  last,  with  a 
single  vessel,  after  circumnavigating  the  globe,  he  re- 
turned to  England,  laden  Vith  spoils,  rich  in  adven- 
tures, having  won  a  merited  celebrity  by  his  sufferings, 
his  good  judgment,  and  his  cheerful  perseverance,—  Anson»9 
while  the  brilliant  sketches  of  the  Ladrones,  by  the  VunSle 
historian  of  his  voyage,  made  his  name  familiar  to  the    ***• 
lovers  of  romance  throughout  Europe. 

In  November,  1739,  Edward  Vernon,  with  six  men-  1739 
of-  war,  appeared  off  Porto  Bello.     The  attack  on  the 


440  WAR    WITH    SPAIN 

CHAP  feeble  and  ill-supplied  garrison  began  on  the  twenty- 

first ;  and,  on  the  next  day,  Vernon,  losing  but  seven 

men,  was  in  possession  of  the  town  and  the  castles. 
A  booty  of  ten  thousand  dollars,  and  the  pleasure  of 
demolishing  the  fortifications  of  the  place,  were  the 
sole  fruits  of  the  enterprise;  and,  having  acquired  no 
rightful  claim  to  glory,  Vernon  returned  to  Jamaica. 
Party  spirit,  in  free  governments,  sometimes  vitiates 
the  contemporary  verdict  of  opinion.  Vernon  belonged 
to  the  opposition ;  and  the  enemies  of  Walpole  exalted 
his  praises,  till  his  heroism  was  made  a  proverb,  his 
birthday  signalized  by  lights  and  bonfires,  and  his 
head  selected  as  the  favorite  ornament  for  signposts. 

1740.  Meantime,  he  took  and  demolished  Fort  Chagre,  on 
this  side  of  the  Isthmus  of  Darien ;  but  without  result; 
for  the  gales  near  Cape  Horn  had  prevented  the  coop- 
eration of  Anson  at  Panama. 

The  victory,  in  its  effects,  was  sad  for  the  northern 
colonies.  England  prepared  to  send  to  the  West  In- 
dies by  far  the  largest  fleet  and  army  that  had  ever 
appeared  in  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  and  summoned  the 
colonies  north  of  Carolina  to  contribute  four  battalions 
to  the  armament.  No  colony  refused  its  quota ;  even 
Pennsylvania  voted  a  contribution  of  money,  and  thus 
enabled  its  governor  to  enlist  troops  for  the  occasion. 
"It  will  not  be  amiss,"  wrote  Sir  Charles  Wager  to 
Admiral  Vernon,  "for  botti  French  and  Spaniards  to 
be  a  month  or  two  in  the  West  Indies  before  us,  that 
they  may  be  half  dead,  and  half  roasted,  before  our 
fleet  arrives."  So  the  expedition  from  England  did 
not  begin  its  voyage  till  October,  and,  after  stopping 
for  water  at  Dominica,  where  Lord  Cathcart,  the  com- 
mander of  the  land  forces,  fell  a  victim  to  the  climate, 

Jan  9.'  reached  Jamaica  in  the  early  part  of  the  following  year. 


VERNON  ATTACKS  CARTHAGENA.  441 

How  has  history  been  made  the  memorial  of  the  CHAP. 
passionate  misdeeds  of  men  of  mediocrity!    The  death  — -**~ 
of  Lord  Cathcart  left  the  command  of  the  land  forces 
with   the  inexperienced,    irresolute    Wentworth ;    the    *$*• 
naval  force  was  under  the  impetuous  Verrion,  who  was 
impatient  of  contradiction,  and  ill  disposed  to  endure 
even  an  associate.     The  enterprise,  instead  of  having 
one  good  leader,  had  two  bad  ones. 

Wasting  at  Jamaica  the  time  from  the  ninth  of  Jan- 
uary, 1741,  till  near  the  end  of  the  month,  at  last,  with  1741 
a  fleet  of  twenty-nine  ships  of  the  line,  beside  about 
eighty  smaller  vessels,  with  fifteen  thousand  sailors, 
with  twelve  thousand  land  forces,  equipped  with  all 
sorts  of  warlike  instruments,  and  every  kind  of  conve- 
nience, Vernon  weighed  anchor,  without  any  definite 
purpose.  Havana  lay  within  three  days'  sail ;  its  con- 
quest would  have  made  England  supreme  in  the  Gulf 
of  Mexico.  But  Vernon  insisted  on  searching  for  the 
fleet  of  the  French  and  Spaniards ;  and  the  French 
had  already  left  the  fatal  climate. 

The  council  of  war,  yielding  to  the  vehement  direc- 
tion of  Admiral  Vernon,  resolved  to  attack  Carthagena, 
the  strongest  place  in  Spanish  America.  The  fleet 
appeared  before  the  town  on  the  fourth  of  March,  and 
lost  five  days  in  inactivity.  Fifteen  days  were  required 
to  gain  possession,  of  the  fortress  that  rose  near  the 
entrance  to  the  harbor;  the  Spaniards  themselves 
abandoned  Castillo  Grande.  It  remained  to  storm 
Fort  San  Lazaro,  which  commanded  the  towrn.  The 
attack,  devised  without  judgment,  was  made  by  twelve 
hundred  men  with  intrepidity;  but  the  assailants  were 
repulsed,  with  the  loss  of  half  their  number, — while 
the  admiral  gave  no  timely  aid  to  the  land  forces ;  and 
discord  aggravated  defeat.  Erelong,  rains  set  in ;  the 
VOL.  in.  56 


442  WAR    WITH    SPAIN. 

CHAP,  days  were  wet,  the  nights  brilliant  with  vivid  light- 

-A  Jxl  V* 

— —  ning.  The  fever  of  the  low  country  in  the  tropics  be- 
gan its  rapid  work ;  men  perished  in  crowds ;  the  dead 
were  cast  into  the  sea,  sometimes  without  winding- 
sheet  or  sinkers  ;  the  hospital  ships  were  crowded  with 
miserable  sufferers.  In  two  days,  the  effective  force 
on  land  dwindled  from  six  thousand  six  hundred  to 
three  thousand  two  hundred.  Men  grew  as  jealous  as 
they  were  wretched,  ani  inquired  if  there  were  not 
Papists  in  the  army.  T'he  English  could  only  demol- 
ish the  fortifications  and  retire.  "Even  the  Span- 
iards," wrote  Vernon,  "will  give  us  a  certificate  that 
we  have  effectually  destroyed  all  their  castles." 

In  July,  an  attack  on  Santiago,  in  Cuba,  was  med- 
itated, and  abandoned  almost  as  soon  as  attempted. 

Such  were  the  fruits  of  an  expedition  which  was  to 
have  prepared  the  way  for  conquering  Mexico  and 
Peru.  Of  the  recruits  from  the  colonies,  nine  out  of 
ten  fell  victims  to  the  climate  and  the  service.  When 
the  fleet  returned  to  Jamaica,  late  in  November,  1741, 
the  entire  loss  of  lives  is  estimated  to  have  been  about 
twenty  thousand,  of  whom  few  fell  by  the  enemy. 
Vernon  attributed  the  failure  to  his  own  want  of  a 
sole  command.  It  is  certain  that  nothing  had  been 
accomplished. 

In  March,  1742,  Vernon  and  Wentworth  planned 
an  expedition  against  Panama;  but,  on  reaching  Porto 
Bello,  the  design  was  voted  impracticable,  and  they 
returned.  Meantime,  the  commerce  of  England  with 
Spain  itself  was  destroyed;  the  assiento  was  interrupt- 
ed ;  even  the  contraband  was  impaired ;  while  Eng- 
lish ships  became  the  plunder  of  privateers.  England 
had  made  no  acquisitions,  and  had  inflicted  on  the 
Spanish  West  Indies  far  less  evil  than  she  herself  had 
suffered. 


OGLETHORPE    BESIEGES    ST.  AUGUSTINE.  443 

The  disasters  in  the  West  Indies  prevented  the  con-  CHAP 

XXIV 

quest  of  Florida.     Having,  in  September,   1739,  re-  <• 

ceived  instructions  from  England  of  the  approaching  1739 
war  with  Spain,  Oglethorpe  hastened,  before  the  close 
of  the  year,  to  extend  the  boundaries  of  Georgia  once 
more  to  the  St.  John's,  and  immediately,  in  December, 
urged  upon  the  province  of  South  Carolina  the  reduc-  {Jj^pj 
lion  of  the  Spaniards  at  St.  Augustine.     "  As  soon  as   "339* 
the  sea  is  free,"  he  adds,  "  they  will  send  a  large  body 
of  troops   from  Cuba."     His   own   intrepidity  would 
brook  no  delay,  and,  in  the  first  week   of  1740,  he 
entered  Florida.     "  Dear  Mr.  Oglethorpe,"  wrote  the 
Moravian  ministers,  "is  now  exposed  to  much  danger;  1740. 
for  the  Spaniards  wish  nothing  more  than  to  destroy     14.* 
his  health  and  life.     He  does  not  spare  himself,  but, 
in  the  common  soldier;s  dress,  he  engages  in  the  most  BoJziug 
perilous  actions.     Since  the  new  year,  he  has  captured  Bnau?ST 
two  small  fortified  places  of  the  Spaniards,  which  were 
the  outposts  of  St.  Augustine,  and  now  waits  only  for 
more  Indians  and  more  soldiers  to  attack  that  impor- 
tant fortress  itself." 

In  March,  Oglethorpe  hurried  to  Charleston,  to  en- 
courage the  zeal  of  South  Carolina;  but  the  forces, 
which  that  province  voted  in  April,  were  not  ready  till 
May ;  and  when  the  expedition,  composed  of  six  hun- 
dred regular  troops,  four  hundred  militia  from  Carolina, 
beside  Indian  auxiliaries,  who  were  soon  reduced  to 
two  hundred,  advanced  to  the  walls  of  St.  Augustine, 
the  garrison,  commanded  by  Monteano,  a  man  of  §(!TeJrrg;ri 
courage  and  energy,  had  already  received  supplies. 
A  vigorous  sally  was  successful  against  a  detached 
party,  chiefly  of  Highlanders,  at  Fort  Moosa.  Yet, 
for  nearly  five  weeks,  Oglethorpe  endeavored,  in  de- 
fiance of  his  own  weakness  and  the  strength  of  the 


444  WAR    WITH    SPAIN 

CHAP,  place,  to  devise  measures  for  victory,  till  "  the  Carolina 

»- — -  troops,  enfeebled  by  the  heat,  dispirited  by  sickness, 

!?S5;  and  fatigued  by  fruitless  efforts,  marched  away  in  large 

ste-    bodies."     The  small  naval  force  also  resolved,  in  coun- 

Phens'a 

Ji?t"r46i!'  C1*»  "to  ta^e  0"  all   their  men,  and  sail  away,"  and 
e^ger,  thus  "  put  an  end  to  the  enterprise."     Oglethorpe  re- 
iSla34o'  turned  without  molestation  to  Frederica.     His  conduct 
throughout  the  summer  was  a  commentary  on  his  char- 
acter.    The  few  prisoners  whom  he  made  were  kindly 
treated;  the  cruelties  of  the  savages  were  reproved  and 
restrained ;  not  a  field,  or  a  garden,  or  a  house,  near 
St.  Augustine,  was  injured,  unless  by  the  Indians, — 
for  burning  them  he  thought  the  worst  use  to  which 
they  could  be  devoted.     "  He  endured  more  fatigues 
B^er,  than  any  of  his  soldiers;  and,  in  spite  of  ill  health  con- 
sequent on  exposure  to  perpetual  damps,  he  was  always 
at  the  head  in  every  important  action." 
1742.      The  English  still  asserted  their  superiority  on  the 
southern  frontier.     St.  Augustine  had  not  fallen ;  the 
Spaniards   had    not   been   driven   from   Florida ;    but 
Oglethorpe  maintained  the  extended  limits  of  Geor- 
gia ;  his  Indian  alliances  gave  him  the  superiority  in 
the  wilderness  as  far  as  the  land  of  the  Choctas. 

At  last,  to  make  good  its  pretensions,  the  Spanish 
government  resolved  on  invading  Georgia.  It  col- 
lected its  forces  from  Cuba,  and  a  large  fleet,  with 
an  armament  of  which  the  force  has  been  greatly 
exaggerated,  sailed  towards  the  mouth  of  the  St.  Ma- 
ry's. Fort  William,  which  Oglethorpe  had  constructed 
at  the  southern  extremity  of  Cumberland  Island,  de- 
fended the  entrance  successfully,  till,  fighting  his  way 
through  Spanish  vessels,  which  endeavored  to  intercept 
him,  the  general  himself  reenforced  it.  Then,  promptly 
returning  to  St.  Simon's,  having  no  aid  from  Carolina, 


THE    SPANIARDS   INVADE   GEORGIA.  445 

with  less  than  a  thousand  men,  by  his  vigilant  activity,  CHAP 
trusting  in  Providence,  he  prepared  for  defence.  "We  — *-J 
are  resolved  not  to  suffer  defeat" — such  was  his  cheer-  JJ42 

June 

ing  message  to  Savannah; — "we  will  rather  die,  like     24. 
Leonidas  and  his  Spartans,  if  we  can  but  protect  Car-    *<** 
olina.  and  the  rest  of  the  Americans  from  desolation."  EldnefrU 
And,  going   on  board   one  of  the  little   vessels  that  inpGe!>7- 

gien,   in 

chanced  to  be  at  hand,  he  called  on  the   seamen  to  B|J?JJ;r> 
stand  by  their  liberties  and  country.     "For  myself," 
he  added,  "  I  am   prepared  for  all  dangers.     I  know 
the  enemy  are  far  more  numerous  than  we;  but  I  rely  Hlg>27< 
on  the  valor  of  our  men,  and,  with  the  aid  of  God,  I 
do  not  doubt  we  shall  be  victorious." 

On  the  fifth  of  July,  seven  days  after  it  first  came  to  July  5 
anchor  off  Simon's  Bar,  the  Spanish  fleet  of  thirty-six 
vessels,  with  the  tide  of  flood  and  a  brisk  gale,  entered 
St.  Simon's  Harbor,  and  succeeded  in  passing  the 
English  batteries  on  the  southern  point  of  the  island. 
The  general  signalled  his  ships  to  run  up  to  Frederica, 
and,  spiking  the  guns  of  the  lower  fort,  withdrew  to 
the  town ;  while  the  Spaniards  landed  at  Gascoin's 
Bluff,  and  took  possession  of  the  camps  which  the 
English  had  abandoned.  But,  in  constructing  the 
road  to  Frederica,  Oglethorpe  had  left  a  morass  on  the 
one  side,  and  a  dense  oak  wood  on  the  other.  A  party 
of  Spaniards  advance ;  they  are  within  a  mile  of  the 
town ;  they  are  met  by  Oglethorpe  himself,  with  the  July  7 
Highland  company,  are  overcome,  pursued,  and  most 
of  the  party  killed  or  taken  prisoners.  A  second  party 
of  the  Spaniards  march  to  the  assault ;  they  come  to  a 
place  where  the  narrow  avenue,  bending  with  the  edge 
of  the  morass,  forms  a  crescent:  as  they  reach  the 
fatal  spot,  Highland  caps  rise  up  in  the  wood,  and, 
under  the  command  of  Mackay  and  Sutherland,  an 


446  WAR   WITH    SPAIN. 

CHAP,  attack   is   begun.     The   opposing   grenadiers   at  first 

— — -  stood  firm,  and  discharged  volley  after  volley  at  an 

1742.  enemy  whom  the  thicket  concealed.     But,  as  Ogle- 

thorpe  hastened  to   the    scene,  he  found  the  victory 

already  complete,  except  as  a  Highland  shout  or  the 

yell  of  an  Indian  announced  the  discovery  of  some 

straggling  Spaniard.    The  enemy  had  retreated,  with  a 

loss  of  about  two  hundred  men,  leaving  to  the  ground, 

which  was  now  strown  with  the  dead,  the  name  of 

"  the  Bloody  Marsh." 

Despairing  of  success,  and  weakened  by  divisions, — 
deceived,  too,  by  an  ingenious  stratagem, — the  Span- 
iards,  on  the  night  of  the  fourteenth,  reembarked, 
leaving  a  quantity  of  ammunition  and  guns  behind 
them.  On  the  eighteenth,  on  their  way  to  the  south, 
they  renewed  their  attack  on  Fort  William,  which 
was  bravely  defended  by  Stuart  and  his  little  garrison 
of  fifty  men.  The  English  boats  watched  the  move- 
ments of  the  retreating  squadron  till  it  was  south  of 
the  St.  John's  ;  and,  on  the  twenty-fourth  day  of  July, 
Oglethorpe  could  publish  an  order  for  a  general  thanks- 
giving for  the  end  of  the  invasion. 

Thus  was  Georgia  colonized  and  defended ;  its 
frontiers  were  safe  against  inroads ;  and,  though  Flor- 
ida still  lingered  under  the  jurisdiction  of  Spain,  its 
limits  were  narrowed.  To  meet  the  complaints  of 
the  disaffected,  Oglethorpe,  after  a  year  of  tranquillity, 
1JiJ3  sa^e(^  f°r  England,  never  again  to  behold  the  colony 
with  which  the  disinterested  toils  of  ten  years  had 
identified  his  fame.  For  the  welfare  of  Georgia,  he 
had  renounced  ease  and  the  enjoyment  of  fortune,  to 
scorn  danger,  and  fare  "  much  harder  than  any  of  the 
people  that  were  settled  there."  Yet  his  virtues  wrere 
the  result  of  sentiment,  not  of  reflection,  and  were 


CHARACTER  OF  OGLETHORPE.  447 

colored  by  the  prejudices  of  his  nation,  the  hatred  of  CHAP 
Papists,  the  aversion  to  Spain.  But  the  gentleness  of  — — 
his  nature  appeared  in  all  his  actions :  he  was  merciful 
to  the  prisoner ;  a  father  to  the  emigrant ;  the  unwa- 
vering  friend  of  Wesley;  the  constant  benefactor  of 
the  Moravians ;  honestly  zealous  for  the  conversion  of 
the  Indians ;  invoking  for  the  negro  the  panoply  of  the 
gospel.  His  heart  throbbed  warmly  for  all  around 
him ;  he  loved  to  relieve  the  indigent,  to  soothe  the 
mourner;  and  his  name  became  known  as  another 
expression  for  "vast  benevolence  of  soul." 

Of  an  honorable  lineage ;  from  boyhood  devoted  to 
the  profession  of  arms ;  by  hereditary  attachment,  and 
by  personal  character,  a  friend  to  legitimacy;  he  was, 
for  a  commercial  age,  the  representative  of  that  chiv- 
alry which  knew  neither  fear  nor  reproach,  and  felt  a 
stain  on  honor  like  a  wound.  There  are  men  filled 
with  the  sentiment  of  humanity,  yet  having  a  predilec- 
tion for  hierarchical  forms, — revering  the  institutions 
of  aristocracy,  with  a  genuine  faith  in  them, — willing 
to  protect  the  humble,  rather  than  to  surrender  power 
and  establish  equality.  Such  was  Oglethorpe.  Loyal 
and  brave  ;  choleric,  yet  merciful ;  versed  in  elegant 
letters ;  affable  even  to  talkativeness ;  slightly  boastful, 
and  tinged  with  vanity, — he  was  ever  ready  to  shed 
blood,  rather  than  brook  an  insult,  and  yet  more  ready 
to  expose  life  for  those  who  looked  to  him  for  defence. 
A  monarchist  in  the  state,  friendly  to  the  church,  he 
seemed,  even  in  youth,  like  one  who  had  survived  his 
times, — like  the  relic  of  a  former  century  and  a  more 
chivalrous  age, — illustrating  to  the  modern  world  of 
business  what  a  crowd  of  virtues  and  charities  could 
cluster  round  the  heart  of  a  Cavalier. 

The  life  of  Oglethorpe  was  prolonged  to  near  five- 


448  WAR    WITH    SPAIN. 

CHAP,  score  ;  and,  even  in  the  last  year  of  it,  he  was  extolled 

XXIV. 

-  —  ^~  as  "  the  finest  figure  "  ever  seen,  the  impersonation  of 


ven  arable    age  ;   his  faculties  were  as   bright  as  ever, 
wen.    and  his  eje  was  undimmed;  ever  "heroic,  romantic, 
and  full  of  the  old  gallantry,"  he  was  like  the  sound  of 
the  lyre,  as  it  still  vibrates,  after  the  spirit  of  the  age 
that  sweeps  its  strings  has  passed  away.     But,  as  he 
belonged  to  the  past,  he  could  not  found  enduring  insti- 
tutions.    He  could  not  mould  the  future,  and  his  legis- 
lation did  not  outlive  his  power.     The  system  of  tail 
male  went  gradually  into  oblivion  ;  the  importation  of 
rum    was  no  longer  forbidden  ;  slaves  from  Carolina 
were  hired  by  the  planter,  first  for  a  short  period,  then 
for  life  or  a  hundred  years.     Slavers  from  Africa  sailed 
directly  to  Savannah,  and  the  laws  against  them  were 
not  rigidly  enforced.     Whitefield,   who  believed   that 
God's  providence  would  certainly  make  slavery  termi- 
nate for  the  advantage  of  the  Africans,  pleaded  before 
the  -trustees  in  its  favor,  as  essential  to  the  prosperity 
operger,  of  Georgia  ;  even  the  poorest  people  earnestly  desired 
the  change.     The  Moravians   still   expressed   regret, 
•perger,  moved  partly  by  a  hatred  of  oppression,  and  partly  by 
com-'  antipathy  to  the  race  of  colored  men.    At  last,  they  too 
AJ"n[-~  began  to  think  that  negro  slaves  might  be  employed  in 
AekS.  a  Christian  spirit  ;  and  it  was  agreed  that,  if  the  ne- 
Goues,  grc.es  are  treated  in  a  Christian  manner,  their  change 
1751.  of  country  would  prove  to  them  a  benefit.     A  message 
from  Germany  served  to  hush  their  scruples.     "  If  you 
take  slaves  in  faith,  and  with  the  intent  of  conducting 
them  to  Christ,  the  action  will  not  be  a  sin,  but  may 
prove  a  benediction." 

After  the  departure  of  Oglethorpe,  the  southern 
colonies  enjoyed  repose  ;  for  the  war  for  colonial 
commerce  had  become  merged  in  a  vast  European 


FLEURY    OPPOSES   A   WAR    WITH   AUSTRIA.  449 

struggle,    involving    the    principles    and    the    designs  CHAP 
which  had  agitated  the  civilized  world  for  centuries.  ^  — 


In  France,  Fleury,  like  Walpole,  desiring  to  adhere  to 
the  policy  of  peace,  was,  like  Walpole,  overruled  by 
the  selfishness  of  his  rivals.  He  looked  anxiously  upon 
the  commotions  in  Europe,  and  saw  no  way  of  escape. 
It  appeared  to  him  as  if  the  end  of  the  world  was  at 
hand  ;  and  it  was  so  with  regard  to  the  world  of  feu- 
dalism and  Catholic  legitimacy.  He  expressed  his 
aversion  to  all  wars  ;  and  when  the  king  of  Spain  — 
whom  natural  melancholy,  irritated  by  ill  health  and 
losses,  prompted  to  abdicate  the  throne  —  obtained  of 
Louis  XV.,  under  his  own  hand,  a  promise  of  fifty 
ships  of  the  line,  the  prime  minister  explained  his  pur- 
poses :  —  "  I  do  not  propose  to  begin  a  war  with  Eng- 
land, or  to  seize  or  to  annoy  one  British  ship,  or  to 
take  one  foot  of  land  possessed  by  England  in  any  part 
of  the  world.  Yet  I  must  prevent  England  from  ac- 
complishing its  great  purpose  of  appropriating  to  itself 
the  entire  commerce  of  the  West  Indies."  "  France, 
though  it  has  no  treaty  with  Spain,  cannot  consent 
that  the  Spanish  colonies  should  fall  into  English 
hands."  "  It  is  our  object,"  said  the  statesmen  of 
France,  "  not  to  make  war  on  England,  but  to  induce  so,  3ir 
it  to  consent  to  a  peace." 

Such  was  the  wise  disposition  of  the  aged  Fleury, 
when,  by  the  death  of  Charles  VI.,  the  extinction  of 
»he  male  line  of  the  house  of  Hapsburg  raised  a  ques- 
tion on  the  Austrian  succession.  The  pragmatic  sanc- 
tion, to  which  France  was  a  party,  secured  the  whole 
Austrian  dominions  to  Maria  Theresa,  the  eldest 
daughter  of  Charles  VI.  ;  while,  from  an  erudite  gene- 
alogy or  previous  marriages,  the  sovereigns  of  Spain, 
of  Saxony,  and  of  Bavaria,  each  derived  a  claim  to  the 
VOL.  HI.  57 


450  WAR    WITH    SPAIN   AND    FRANCE. 

CHAP  undivided  heritage.     The  interest  of  the  French  king, 

his  political  system,  his  faith  as  pledged  by  a  solemn 

treaty,  the  advice  of  his  minister,  demanded  of  him  the 
recognition  of  the  rights  of  Maria  Theresa  in  their  in- 
tegrity; and  yet,  swayed  by  the  intrigues  of  the  Belle 
Isles  and  the  hereditary  hatred  of  Austria,  without  one 
decent  pretext,  he  constituted  himself  the  centre  of  an 
alliance  against  her.  Each  of  his  associates  in  the  war 
claimed  the  entire  Austrian  succession;  and  France, 
which  aimed  at  its  dismemberment,  could  engage  in 
the  strife  only  as  the  common  supporter  of  their  several 
unfounded  pretensions  to  the  whole.  But  individuals, 
who  are  bound  to  each  other  from  selfishness  only,  are 
ever  ready  to  prove  false ;  humanity  is  the  same  in 
masses.  Louis  XV.  united  his  allies  by  no  honest 
principles,  by  no  definite  policy,  and  was  deserted  by 
them,  as  the  selfishness  of  each  could  in  another  man- 
ner be  better  gratified.  Thus  the  condition  of  Euro- 
pean political  relations  was  that  of  tangled  intrigues. 
No  statesman  of  that  day,  except  Frederick,  seemed 
in  any  degree  to  perceive  the  tendency  of  events  As 
England,  by  its  arrogant  encroachments  on  Spain,  un- 
consciously enlarged  the  commercial  freedom,  or  began 
the  independence,  of  colonies;  so  France,  by  its  unjus- 
tifiable war  on  Austria,  floated  from  its  moorings,  and 
foreboded  the  wreck  of  Catholic  legitimacy. 

In  the  great  European  contest,  England,  true  to  its 

policy  of  connecting  itself  with  the  second  continental 

1744   power,  gave  subsidies  to  Austria.     The  fleets  of  Eng. 

eb"    land  and  France  meet  in  the  Mediterranean  ;  the  fleet 

*£    of  England  is  victorious.     France  declares  war  against 

England  also  ;  and  the  little  conflicts  in  America  are 

lost  in  the  universal  conflagration  of  Europe. 

Never  did  history  present  such  a  scene  of  confusion. 


WAR    OF    THE    AUSTRIAN    SUCCESSION.  451 

While  the  selfishness  which  had  produced  the  general  CHAP 

XXIV 

war,  was  itself  without  faith,  it  made  use  of  all  the  re ^ 

sources  that  were  offered  by  ancient  creeds  or  ancient 
animosities,  by  Protestantism  and  the  Roman  church, 
legitimacy  arid  the  mercantile  system,  the  ancient 
rivalry  of  France  and  Austria,  the  reciprocal  jealousies 
of  France  and  England.  The  enthusiasm  of  other 
centuries  in  religious  strifes  was  extinct ;  and  the  new 
passion  for  popular  power  was  but  just  beginning  to 
swell.  Europe  rocked  like  the  ocean  on  the  lulling 
of  a  long  storm,  when  the  opposite  wind  has  just 
sprung  up,  throwing  the  heaving  billows  into  tumultu- 
ous conflict. 

The  absence  of  purity  in  public  life  extinguished  at- 
tachment to  the  administration,  and  left  an  opportunity 
to  the  Pretender  to  invade  Great  Britain,  to  conquer 
Scotland,  to  advance  within  four  days'  march  of  London. 
This  invasion  had  no  partisans  in  America,  where  the 
house  of  Hanover  was  respected  as  the  representative 
of  Protestantism.  In  England,  where  monarchy  was 
established,  the  vices  of  the  reigning  family  had  pro- 
duced disgust  and  indifference ;  but  the  friends  of 
revolution  did  not  look  beyond  a  choice  of  dynasty. 
America  was  destined  to  choose,  not  between  kings, 
but  between  forms  of  government. 

On  the  continent  France  gained  fruitless  victories. 
Her  flag  waved  over  Prague  only  to  be  struck  down  by 
Austria.     Saxony,  Bavaria,  her  allies  on  the  borders  of 
Austria,  one  after  another,  abandoned  her.     The  fields  174g 
of  blood  at  Fontenoy,  at  Raucoux,  at  Laffeldt,  were  1746 
barren  of  results;  for  the  collision  of  armies  was  but  1747 
an  unmeaning  collision  of  brute  force,  guided  by  self- 
ishness.    Statesmen  scoffed  at  Virtue,  and  she  avenged 
herself  by  bringing  their  counsels  to  nought.     In  vain 


452  WAK   WITH    SPAIN   AND   FRANCE. 

xxiv!  ^  they  marsnal  all  Europe  in  hostile  array  ;  they  had 


~~~  no  torch  of  truth  to  pass  from  nation  to  nation  ;  and 
therefore,  though  they  could  besiege  cities,  and  burn 
the  granges  of  the  peasant,  yet,  except  as  their  pur- 
poses were  overruled,  their  lavish  prodigality  of  treas- 
ure, and  honor,  and  life,  was  fruitless  to  humanity. 

One  result,  however,  of  which  the  character  did  not 
at  first  appear,  was,  during  the  conflict,  achieved  in 
the  north.  Protestantism  was  represented  on  the  con- 
tinent by  no  great  power.  Frederick  II.,  a  pupil  of 
the  philosophy  of  Leibnitz  and  Wolf,  took  advantage 
of  the  confusion,  and,  with  the  happy  audacity  of 
youth,  and  a  discreet  ambition,  which  knew  where  to 
set  bounds  to  its  own  impetuosity,  wrested  Silesia 
from  Austria.  Indifferent  to  alliances  with  powers 
which,  having  no  fixed  aims,  could  have  no  fixed 
friendships,  he  entered  into  the  contest,  and  withdrew 
from  it,  alone.  Twice  assuming  arms,  and  twice  con- 

1745*.  ceding  a  separate  peace,  he  retired,  with  a  guaranty 


from  England  of  the  acquisitions  which,  aided  by  the 
power  of  opinion,  constituted  his  monarchy  the  central 
point  of  political  interest  on  the  continent  of  Europe. 
Nor  was  the  war  limited  to  Europe  and  European 
colonies  ;  in  the  East  Indies,  the  commercial  companies 
of  France  and  England  struggled  for  supremacy.  The 
empire  of  the  Great  Mogul  lay  in  ruins,  inviting  a  re- 
storer. But  who  should  undertake  its  reconstruction? 
An  active  instinct  urged  the  commercial  world  of  Eng- 
land to  seek  a  nearer  connection  with  Hindostan; 
again  the  project  of  discovering  a  north-western  pas- 
1742-  sage  to  India  was  renewed  ;  and,  to  encourage  the 
l747'  spirit  of  adventurous  curiosity,  the  English  parliament 
promised  liberal  rewards  for  success.  Meantime,  the 
French  company  of  the  Indies,  aided  by  the  king,  had 


H1NDOSTAN.      RUSSIAN    AMERICA  453 

confirmed  its  power  at  Pondicherry ;  and,  as  the  Sor-  CHAP. 
bonne  had  published  to  a  credulous  nation,  that  divi-  — ^ 
dends  on  the  stock  of  the  commercial  company  would 
be  usurious,  and  therefore  a  crime  against  religion,  the 
corporation  was  unfortunate,  though  private  merchants 
were  gaining  wealth  in  the  Carnatic  and  on  the  Gan- 
ges.    The    brave    mariner   from  St.  Malo,  the   enter- 
prising La  Bourdonnais,  from   his  government  in  the 
Isle  of  France,  had  devised  schemes  of  conquest.    But 
the  future  was  not  foreseen ;  and,  limited  by  instruc- 
tions from  the  French  ministers  to  make  no  acquisi- 
tions of  territory  whatever,  though,  with  the  aid  of  the 
governor  of  Pondicherry,   he    might  have  gained  for   Sh 
France  the  entire  ascendency  in  Hindostan,  he  pledged  R^ 
his  word  of  honor  to  restore  Madras  to  the  English,  in    ^ 
the  very  hour  of  victory,  when  he  proudly  planted  the  1746 
flag  of  France  on  its  fortress,  and  made  himself  master     ept 
of  the  city  which,  next  to  Goa  and  Batavia,  was  the 
most  opulent  of  the  European  establishments  in  India. 
Russia,  also,  was  invoked  to  take  part  in  the  con- 
test ;  and,  in  her  first  political  associations  with  our 
country,  she  was  on  the  side  of  our  fathers,  the  ally  of 
Austria,  the  stipendiary  of  England.    Thus  did  Russia, 
hastening  by  her  interference  the  approach  of  peace, 
indirectly  act  upon  the  fortunes  of  America.     But,  at 
an  earlier  period  of  the  war,  she  had,  in  the  opposite 
direction,  drawn  near  our  present  borders.     After  the 
empire  of  the  czars  had  been  extended  over  Kamtschat- 
ka,  Peter  the  Great  had  planned  a  voyage  of  discovery 
along  the  shores  of  Asia;  and,  in  1728,  Behring  de- 
monstrated the  insulation  of  that  continent  on  the  east. 
In  1741,  the  same  intrepid  navigator,  sailing  with  two 
vessels  from   Ochotzk,  discovered   the   narrow  straits   June 
which  divide  the  continents ;  caught  glimpses  of  the     *" 


454  WAR    WITH    SPAIN    AND    FRANCE. 

TRAP,  mountains  of  North-West  America ;  traced  the  line  of 

XXIV. 

— ~  the   Aleutian   archipelago;  and,  tossed   by  storms,  in 

1741    the    midst  of  snows  and   ice,  fell  a  victim  to  fatigue 
DGC 
8.     on    a  desert   island    of   the    group   which    bears    his 

name.  The  gallant  Danish  mariner  did  not  know  that 
he  had  seen  America ;  and,  though  Russia,  by  right  of 
discovery,  thus  gained  the  north-west  of  our  continent, 
no  conception  dawned  on  the  lewd  revellers  who  sur- 
rounded the  empress  Elizabeth,  of  the  political  institu- 
tions which  already  felt  the  weight  of  her  influence  in 
diplomacy. 

While  the  states  of  Europe,  by  means  of  their  wide 
relations,  were  fast  forming  the  nations  of  the  whole 
world  into  one  political  system,  the  few  incidents  of 
war  in  our  America  could  obtain  no  interest.  In  them- 
selves they  were  destitute  of  grandeur,  and,  though  pro- 
ductive of  individual  distress,  had  no  abiding  influence 
whatever ;  it  was  felt  that  the  true  theatre  of  the  war 
was  not  there.  A  proposition  was  brought  forward  by 
Coxe  to  form  a  union  of  all  the  colonies,  for  the  pur- 
poses of  defence ;  but  danger  was  not  so  universal  or 
so  imminent  as  to  furnish  a  sufficient  motive  for  a  con- 
federacy. The  peace  of  the  central  provinces  was  un- 
broken ;  the  government  of  Virginia  feared  dissenters 
more  than  Spaniards.  Morris,  in  one  of  its  interior 
counties,  in  the  south-west  range,  chanced  to  have  a 
copy  of  Luther  on  Galatians,  and  Bunyan's  works,  and 
read  from  them,  every  Lord's  day,  to  his  neighbors. 
At  last,  a  meeting-house  was  bunt  for  him  to  read  in. 
1743  His  fame  spread,  and  he  was  taken  up  for  examina- 
"JJh1!!  tion ;  but  when  asked  of  what  sect  he  was,  he  could 
not  tell.  In  the  glens  of  the  Old  Dominion,  he  had 
not  heard  of  sects  ;  he  knew  not  that  men  could  disa- 


THE    SIX    NATIONS    CEDE    LANDS    TO    VIRGINIA.  455 

gree.    The  strifes  of  the  world,  in  opinion  and  in  arms,  CHAP. 
had  not  disturbed  the  scattered  planters  of  Virginia. 

The  ownership  of  the  west  was  still  in  dispute ;  and  1744. 
at  Lancaster,  in  Pennsylvania,  the  governor  of  that 
state,  with  commissioners  from  Maryland  and  from 
Virginia,  met  the  deputies  of  the  Iroquois,  who,  since 
the  union  with  the  Tuscaroras,  became  known  as  the 
Six  Nations.  "  We  conquered,"  said  they,  "  the  coun- 
try of  the  Indians  beyond  the  mountains:  if  the  Virgin- 
ians  ever  gain  a  good  right  to  it,  it  must  be  by  us." 
And,  for  about  four  hundred  pounds,  the  deputies  of 
the  Six  Nations  made  "a  deed  recognizing  the  king's  July 2, 
right  to  all  the  lands  that  are  or  shall  be,  by  his  majes- 
ty's appointment,  in  the  colony  of  Virginia."  The 
lands  in  Maryland  were,  in  like  manner,  confirmed  to 
Lord  Baltimore,  but  with  definite  limits;  the  deed  to 
Virginia  extended  the  claim  of  that  colony  indefinitely 
in  the  west  and  north-west. 

The  events  of  the  war  of  England  with  France  were 
then  detailed,  and  the  conditions  of  the  former  treaties 
of  alliance  were  called  to  mind.  "The  covenant  chain 
between  us  and  Pennsylvania,"  replied  Canassatego, 
"  is  an  ancient  one,  and  has  never  contracted  rust.  We 
shall  have  all  your  country  under  our  eye.  Before  we 
came  here,  we  told  Onondio,  there  was  room  enough  at 
sea  to  fight,  where  he  might  do  what  he  pleased ;  but 
he  should  not  come  upon  our  land  to  do  any  damage 
to  our  brethren."  After  a  pause,  it  was  added — "The 
Six  Nations  have  a  great  authority  over  the  praying 
Indians,  who  stand  in  the  very  gates  of  the  French: 
to  show  our  further  care,  we  have  engaged  these  very 
Indians  and  other  allies  of  the  French;  they  have 
agreed  with  us  they  will  not  join  against  you."  Then 
the  chain  of  union  was  made  as  bright  as  the  sun. 


456  WAR    WITH    SPAIN   AND    FRANCE. 

CHAP.  The  Virginians  proposed  to  educate  the  children  of  the 
-^~  Iroquois  at  their  public  school.  "  Brother  Assaragoa," 
1744.  they  replied,  "  we  must  let  you  know  we  love  our  chil- 
dren too  well  to  send  them  so  great  a  way;  and  the 
Indians  are  not  inclined  to  give  their  children  learning. 
Your  invitation  is  good,  but  our  customs  differ  from 
yours."  And  then,  acknowledging  the  rich  gifts  from 
the  three  provinces,  they  continued,  as  if  aware  of 
their  doom — "We  have  provided  a  small  present  for 
you ;  but,  alas !  we  are  poor,  and  shall  ever  remain  so, 
as  long  as  there  are  so  many  Indian  traders  among  us. 
Theirs  and  the  white  people's  cattle  eat  up  all  the 
grass,  and  make  deer  scarce."  And  they  presented 
three  bundles  of  skins.  At  the  close  of  the  conference, 
the  Indians  gave,  in  their  ordei,  five  yo-hahs;  and  the 
July  4.  English  agents,  after  a  health  to  the  king  of  Engkind 
and  the  Six  Nations,  put  an  end  to  the  assembly  by 
three  loud  huzzas.  Thus  did  Great  Britain  at  once 
acquire  and  confirm  its  claims  to  the  basin  of  the  Ohio, 
and,  at  the  same  time,  protect  its  northern  frontier. 

Yet   the   sense  of  danger  led    the   Pennsylvanians, 

lor  the  first  time,  to  a  military  organization,  effected, 

by  a  voluntary  system,  under  the  influence  of  Franklin. 

.      ,    "  He  was  the  sole  author  of  two  lotteries,  that  raised 

Logan's 

above  six  thousand  pounds,  to  pay  for  the  charge  of 
1747.  batteries  on  the  river;"  and  he  "found  a  way  to  put 
the  country  on  raising  above  one  hundred  and  twenty 
companies  of  militia,  of  which  Philadelphia  raised  ten, 
of  about  a  hundred  men  each."  "The  women  were 
so  zealous,  that  they  furnished  ten  pairs  of  silk  colors, 
wrought  with  various  mottoes."  Of  the  Quakers, 
many  admitted  the  propriety  of  self-defence.  "  1  prin- 
cipally esteem  Benjamin  Franklin,"  wrote  Logan,  "  for 
saving  the  country  by  his  contriving  the  militia.  He 


EXPEDITION   AGAINST    LOUISBURG.  457 

was  the  prime  actor  in  all  this ; "  and  when  elected  to  CHAP 

the  command  of  a  regiment,  he  declined  the  distinc - 

tion,  and,  as  a  humble  volunteer,  "himself  carried  a 
musket  among  the  common  soldiers." 

While  the  central  provinces  enjoyed  tranquillity,  a  1744 
body  of  French  from  Cape  Breton,  before  the  news  of 
the  declaration  of  war  with  France  had  been  received 
in  New  England,  surprised  the  little  English  garrison 
at  Canseau ;  destroyed  the  fishery,  the  fort,  and  the 
other  buildings  there,  and  removed  eighty  men,  as  ^fi^B™ 
prisoners  of  war,  to  Louisburg.  The  fortifications  of 
Annapolis,  the  only  remaining  defence  of  Nova  Scotia, 
were  in  a  state  of  ruin.  An  attack  made  upon  it  by 
Indians  in  the  service  of  the  French,  accompanied  by 
Le  Loutre,  their  missionary,  was  with  difficulty  re-  : 
pelled.  The  inhabitants  of  the  province,  sixteen  thou- 
sand in  number,  were  of  French  origin ;  and  a  revolt 
of  the  people,  with  the  aid  of  Indian  allies,  might  have 
once  more  placed  France  in  possession  of  its  ancient 
colony  While  William  Shirley,  the  governor  of  Mas- 
sachusetts, foresaw  the  danger,  and  solicited  aid  from 
England,  the  officers  and  men  taken  at  Canseau,  after 
passing  the  summer  in  captivity  at  Louisburg,  were 
sent  to  Boston  on  parole.  They  brought  accurate  ac- 
counts of  the  condition  of  that  fortress ;  and  Shirley 
resolved  on  an  enterprise  for  its  reduction.  The  fish- 
ermen, especially  of  Marblehead,  interrupted  in  their 
pursuits  by  the  war,  disdained  an  idle  summer,  and 
entered  readily  into  the  design.  The  legislature  of 
Massachusetts,  after  some  hesitation,  resolved  on  the 
expedition  by  a  majority  of  one  vote.  Solicited  to  ren- 
der assistance,  New  York  sent  a  small  supply  of  artille- 
ry, and  Pennsylvania  of  provisions  ;  New  England  alone 
furnished  men ;  of  whom  Connecticut  raised  five  hun- 
VOL.  in.  58 


468  WAR  WITH    5SFA1M    AND   FRANCE. 

CHAP,  dred  and  sixteen  :    New  Hampshire  —  to  whose  troops 
^^  Whitefield  gave,  as  Charles  Wesley  had  done  to  Ogle- 
thorpe,  the  motto,  "Nothing  is   to   be  despaired  of, 
with  Christ  for  the  leader"  —  contributed  a  detachment 
of  three  hundred  and  four  ;  while  the  forces  levied  for 
the  occasion  by  Massachusetts  exceeded  three  thousand 
volunteers.     Three  hundred  men  sailed  from  Rhode 
Island,  but  too  late   for  active  service.     Of  Commo- 
dore Warren  at  Antigua,  an   express-boat   requested 
the  cooperation  with  such  ships  as  could  be    spared 
from    the  Leeward   Islands;    but,    on  a   consultation 
with  the  captains  of  his  squadron,  it  was  unanimously 
resolved  by  them,  in  the  absence  of  directions  from 
England,  not  to  engage  in  the  scheme. 
1745.      Thus,  then,  relying  on  themselves,  the  volunteers 
April.  of  New  Hampshire  and  Massachusetts,  with  a  mer- 
chant, William  Pepperell   of  Maine,  for   their   chief 
8eth    commander,  met  at  Canseau.     The  inventive  genius 
ro°y™"    of  New  England  had  been  aroused  ;  one  proposed  a 
model  <?f  a  flying  bridge,  to  scale  the  walls  even  before 
a  breach  should  be  made  ;  another  was  ready  with  a 
caution  against  mines  ;  a  third,  who  was  a  minister, 
presented  to  the  merchant  general,  ignorant  of  war,  a 
P^an  ^or  encamPmg  tne  armj>  opening  trenches,  and 
placing  batteries.     Shirley,  wisest  of  all,  gave  instruc- 
toot  tions  for  the  fleet  of  a  hundred  vessels  to  arrive  togeth- 

Lost 

w«-  er  at  a  precise  hour;  heedless  of  the  surf,  to  land  in  the 
dark  on  the  rocky  shore  ;  to  march  forthwith,  through 
-  thicket  and  bog,  to  the  city,  and  beyond  it  ;  and  to 
take  the  fortress  and  royal  battery  by  surprise  before 
daybreak.  Such  was  the  confiding  spirit  at  home. 
The  expedition  itself  was  composed  of  fishermen,  who, 
in  time  of  war,  could  no  longer  use  the  hook  and  line 


tion. 


w»'a 


THE  EXPEDITION  AT  CANSEAU  459 

on  the  Grand  Bank,  but,  with  prudent  forethought,  took  CHAP 
with  them  their  codlines ;  of  mechanics,  skilled  from  ^^ 
childhood  in  the  use  of  the  gun;  of  lumberers,  inured 
to  fatigue  and  encampments  in  the  woods ;  of  hus- 
bandmen from  the  interior,  who  had  grown  up  with 
arms  in  their  hands,  accustomed  to  danger,  keenest 
marksmen,  disciplined  in  the  pursuit  of  larger  and 
smaller  game  ;  all  volunteers  ;  all  commanded  by  offi- 
cers from  among  themselves ;  many  of  them  church- 
members;  almost  all  having  wives  and  children.  On 
the  first  Sabbath,  how  did  "  the  very  great  company 
of  people  "  come  together  on  shore,  to  hear  the  sermon 
on  enlisting  as  volunteers  in  the  service  of  the  Great 
Captain  of  our  salvation !  As  the  ice  of  Cape  Breton 
was  drifting  in  such  heaps  that  a  vessel  could  not  enter 
its  harbors,  the  New  England  fleet  was  detained  many 
days  at  Canseau, — when,  under  a  clear  sky  and  a 
bright  sun,  the  squadron  of  Commodore  Warren  hap- 
pily  arrived.  Hardly  had  his  council  at  Antigua  de- 
clined the  enterprise,  when  instructions  from  England 
bade  him  render  every  aid  to  Massachusetts ;  and, 
learning  at  sea  the  embarkation  of  the  troops,  he  sailed 
directly  to  Canseau.  The  next  day  arrived  nine  ves-  24. 
sels  from  Connecticut,  with  the  forcers  from  that  colo- 
ny, in  high  spirits  and  good  health. 

On  the  last  day  of  April,  an  hour  after  sunrise,  the 
armament,  in  a  hundred  vessels  of  New  England,  en- 
tering the  Bay  of  Chapeaurouge,  or  Gabarus,  as  the 
English  called  it,  came  in  sight  of  Louisburg.  Its 
walls,  raised  on  a  neck  of  land  on  the  south  side  of 
the  harbor,  forty  feet  thick  at  the  base,  and  from 
twenty  to  thirty  feet  high,  all  swept  from  the  bastions, 
surrounded  by  a  ditch  eighty  feet  wide,  were  furnished 
with  one  hundred  and  one  cannon,  seventy-six  swivels, 


460  WAR   WITH    SPAIN    AND    FRANCE. 

CHAP,  and  six  mortars ;  its  garrison  was  composed  of  more 
~ — ^  than  sixteen  hundred  men  ;  the  harbor  was  defend- 
1745  ed  by  an  island  battery  of  thirty  twenty-two  pounders, 
and  by  the  royal  battery  on  the  shore,  having  thirty 
large  cannon,  a  moat  and  bastions,  all  so  perfect  that 
^cS?1  it  was  thought  two  hundred  men  could  have  defended 
it  against  five  thousand.  On  the  other  hand,  the  New 
England  forces  had  but  eighteen  cannon  and  three 
mortars  ;  but  no  sooner  did  they  come  in  sight  of  the 
city,  than,  letting  down  the  whale-boats,  "  they  flew  to 
shore,  like  eagles  to  the  quarry."  The  French,  that 
came  down  to  prevent  the  landing,  were  put  to  flight, 
May  1.  and  driven  into  the  woods.  On  the  next  day,  a  detach- 
ment of  four  hundred  men,  led  by  William  Vaughan,  a 
volunteer  from  New  Hampshire,  marched  by  the  city, 
which  it  greeted  with  three  cheers,  and  took  post  near 
the  north-east  harbor.  The  French  who  held  the 
royal  battery,  struck  with  panic,  spiked  its  guns,  and 
abandoned  it  in  the  night.  In  the  morning,  boats  from 
the  city  came  to  recover  it ;  but  Vaughan  and  thirteen 
men,  standing  on  the  beach,  kept  them  from  landing 
till  a  reenforcement  arrived.  To  a  major  in  one  of  the 
regiments  of  Massachusetts,  Seth  Pomeroy,  from  North- 
ampton, a  gunsmith,  was  assigned  the  oversight  of 
above  twenty  smiths  in  drilling  the  cannon,  which 
were  little  injured ;  and  the  fire  from  the  city  and 
the  island  battery  was  soon  returned.  "  Louisburg," 
wrote  Pomeroy  to  his  family, "is  an  exceedingly  strong 
place,  and  seems  impregnable.  It  looks  as  if  our 
campaign  would  last  long ;  but  I  am  willing  to  stay  till 
God's  time  comes  to  deliver  the  city  into  our  hands." 
"Suffer  no  anxious  thought  to  rest  in  your  mind  about 
me,"  replied  his  wife,  from  the  bosom  of  New  Eng- 
land. "The  whole  town  is  much  engaged  with  concern 


Hutcb. 


SIEGE   OF  LOUISBURG  461 

for  the  expedition,  how  Providence  will  order  the  af-  CHAP 
c  .       ,  '      .  xxiv 

lair,    tor   which    religious   meetings   every    week   are  ^-^ 

maintained.     1  leave  you  in  the  hand  of  God."  1745 

The  troops  made  a  jest  of  technical  military  terms  ; 
they  laughed  at  proposals  for  zigzags  and  epaule- 
ments.  The  light  of  nature,  however,  taught  them 
to  erect  fascine  batteries  at  the  west  and  south-west 
of  the  city.  Of  these  the  most  effective  was  com- 
manded by  Tidcomb,  whose  readiness  to  engage  in 
hazardous  enterprises  was  justly  applauded.  As  it  was 
necessary,  for  the  purposes  of  attack,  to  drag  the  cannon 
over  boggy  morasses,  impassable  for  wheels,  Meserve, 
a  New  Hampshire  colonel,  who  was  a  carpenter,  con- 
structed sledges;  and  on  these  the  men,  with  straps 
over  their  shoulders,  sinking  to  their  knees  in  mud, 
drew  them  safely  over.  Thus  the  siege  proceeded 
in  a  random  manner.  The  men  knew  little  of  strict 
discipline  ;  they  had  no  fixed  encampment  ;  destitute 
of  tents  to  keep  off  the  fogs  and  dews,  their  lodgings  P°Ms?7 
were  turf  and  brush  houses  ;  their  bed  was  the  earth  — 
dangerous  resting-place  for  those  of  the  people  "unac- 
quainted with  lying  in  the  woods."  Yet  the  weather 
was  fair  ;  and  the  atmosphere,  usually  thick  with  pal- 
pable fogs,  was,  during  the  whole  siege,  singularly  dry. 
All  day  long,  the  men,  if  not  on  duty,  were  busy  with 
amusements,  —  firing  at  marks,  fishing,  fowling,  wrest- 
ling, racing,  or  running  after  balls  shot  from  the  ene- 
my's guns.  The  feebleness  of  the  garrison,  which  had 
only  six  hundred  regular  soldiers,  with  about  a  thou-  B<2?8.aF 
sand  Breton  militia,  prevented  sallies  ;  the  hunting  par- 
ties, as  vigilant  for  the  trail  of  an  enemy  as  for  game, 
rendered  a  surprise  by  land  impossible  ;  while  the  fleet 
of  Admiral  Warren  guarded  the  approaches  by  sea. 
Four  or  five  attempts  to  take  the  island  battery, 


462  WAR  WITH    SPAIN    AND    FRANCE. 

CHAP,  which  commanded   the    entrance  to  the   harbor,  had 
— *"  failed.     The  failure  is  talked  of  among  the  troops;  a 
1745   party  Of  volunteers,  after   the  fashion  of  Indian  ex- 
peditions, under  a  chief  of  their  own  election,  enlist 
for  a  vigorous  attack  by  night ;  "  but  now  Providence 
w»y    seemed  remarkably  to  frown  upon  the  affair."     The 
assailants  are  discovered ;  a  murderous  fire  strikes  their 
boats  before  they  land ;  only  a  part  of  them  reach  the 
island;  a  severe  contest  for  near  an  hour  ensues;  those 
who  can  reach  the  boats  escape,  with  the  loss  of  sixty 
killed,  and  one  hundred  and  sixteen  taken  prisoners. 
To  annoy  the  island  battery,  the  Americans,  under 
the  direction  of  Gridley  of  Boston,  with   persevering 
toil,  erect  a  battery  near  the  north  cape  of  the  harbor, 
on  the  Light-House  Cliff;  while,  within  two  hundred 
yards  of  the  city,  trenches  had  been  thrown  up  near  an 
advanced  post,  which,  with  guns  from  the  royal  batte- 
ry, played  upon  the  north-west  gate  of  Louisburg. 

Still,  no  breach  had  been  effected,  while  the  labors 
of  the  garrison  were  making  the  fortifications  stronger 
than  ever.  The  expedition  must  be  abandoned,  or  the 
walls  of  the  city  scaled.  The  naval  officers,  who  had 
been  joined  by  several  ships-of-war,  ordered  from  Eng- 
land on  the  service,  agree  to  sail  into  the  harbor,  and 
bombard  the  city,  while  the  land  forces  are  to  attempt 
to  enter  the  fortress  by  storm.  But,  strong  as  were 
the  works,  the  garrison  was  discontented,  and  Du- 
chambon,  their  commander,  ignorant  of  his  duties. 
The  Vigilant,  a  French  ship  of  sixty-four  guns,  laden 
May  with  military  stores  for  his  supply,  had  been  decoyed 
18-  by  Douglas,  of  the  Mermaid,  into  th?  English  fleet,  and, 
after  an  engagement  of  some  hours,  had  b:»en  taken 
in  sight  of  the  besieged  town.  The  desponding  gov- 
ernor sent  out  a  flag  of  truce ;  terms  of  capitula- 


CAPITULATION    OF    LOUISBURG.  463 

tion  were  accepted ;  on  the  seventeenth  of  June,  the  CHAP. 

XXIV 

city,  the  fort,  the  batteries,  were  surrendered ;  and  a  — ~ 
New  England  minister  soon  preached  in  the  French  1745- 
chapel.     As   the  troops,  entering  the  fortress,  beheld 
the  strength  of  the  place,   their  hearts,  for  the  first 
time,  sunk  within  them.     "  God  has  gone  out  of  the 
way  of  his  common  providence,"  said  they,  "  in  a  re-  pom™" 
markable  and  almost  miraculous  manner,  to  incline  the 
hearts  of  the  French  to  give  up,  and  deliver  this  strong 
city  into  our   hands."     When    the    news   of  success 
reached  Boston,  the  bells  of  the  town  were  rung  mer-  July  3. 
rily,  and    all  the  people    were    in    transports   of  joy. 
Thus  did  the  strongest  fortress  of  North  America  ca- 
pitulate to  an  army   of  undisciplined   New   England 
mechanics,  and  farmers,  and   fishermen.     It  was  the 
greatest  success  achieved  by  England  during  the  war. 

The   capture  of  Louisburg  seemed  to  threaten   a  1746 
transfer  of  the  scene  of  earnest  hostilities  to  America. 
France  planned  its  recovery,  and  the  desolation  of  the 
English  colonies;  but,  in  1746,  the   large  fleet  from 
France,  under    the   command  of   the  duke  d'Anville, 
wasted  by  storms  and  shipwrecks,  and  pestilential  dis- 
ease; enfeebled  by  the  sudden  death  of  its  commander, 
and  the  delirium  and  suicide  of  his  successor, — did  not 
even  attack  Annapolis.     In  the  next  year,  the  French  1747 
fleet,  with  troops  destined  for  Canada  and  Nova  Sco- 
tia, was  encountered  by  Anson  and  Warren;  and  all 
its  intrepidity  could  not  save  it  from  striking  its  colors. 
The  American  colonies  suffered  only  on  the  frontier. 
Fort  Massachusetts,  in  Williamstown,  the  post  nearest 
to  Crown  Point,  having  but  twenty-two  men   for  its 
garrison,  capitulated  to  a  large  body  of  French  and  In-    Aug. 
dians.     In   the  wars  of  Queen  Anne,   Deerfield  and     20* 
Haverhill  were  the  scenes  of  massacre.     It  marks  the 


464  WAR    WITH    SPAIN    AND    FRANCE. 

CHAP,  progress  of  settlements,  that  danger  was  now  repelled 
I^IQ  from  Concord,  on  the  Merrimac,  and  from  the  township 
1747,  now  called  Charlestown,  on  the  Connecticut. 

Repairing  to  Louisburg,  Shirley,  with  Warren,  had 
concerted  a  project  for  reducing  all  Canada ;  and  the 
1746  duke  of  Newcastle  replied  to  their  proposals  by  direct- 
ing preparations  for  the  conquest.  The  colonies  north 
of  Virginia  voted  to  raise  more  than  eight  thousand 
men ;  but  no  fleet  arrived  from  England ;  and  the 
French  were  not  even  driven  from  their  posts  in  Nova 
1747.  Scotia.  The  summer  of  the  next  year  passed  in  that 
inactivity  which  attends  the  expectation  of  peace ; 
and  in  September,  the  provincial  army,  by  direction 
of  the  duke  of  Newcastle,  was  disbanded.  Men  be- 
lieved that  England,  from  motives  of  policy,  had  not 
desired  success.  "There  is  reason  enough  for  doubt- 
ing whether  the  king,  if  he  had  the  power,  would  wish 
to  drive  the  French  from  their  possessions  in  Canada." 
Such  was  public  opinion  at  New  York,  in  1748,  as  pre- 
lNov8'  served  for  us  by  the  Swedish  traveller,  Peter  Kalm. 
K?!nk"*  "The  English  colonies  in  this  part  of  the  world,"  he 
ur.46i.  continues,  "have  increased  so  much  in  wealth  and 
population,  that  they  will  vie  with  European  England 
But  to  maintain  the  commerce  and  the  power  of  the 
metropolis,  they  are  forbid  to  establish  new  manufac- 
tures, which  might  compete  with  the  English ;  they 
may  dig  for  gold  and  silver  only  on  condition  of  ship- 
ping them  immediately  to  England  ;  they  have,  with 
the  exception  of  a  few  fixed  places,  no  liberty  to  trade 
to  any  parts  not  belonging  to  the  English  dominions  , 
and  foreigners  are  not  allowed  the  least  commerce 
with  these  American  colonies.  And  there  are  many 
similar  restrictions.  These  oppressions  have  made 
the  inhabitants  of  the  English  colonies  less  tender 


IMPRESSMENT    OF   AMERICAN    SEAMEN.  4(>5 

towards  their  mother  land.    This  coldness  is  increased  CHAP. 

XXIV 

by  the  many  foreigners  who  are  settled  among  them ;  — -v^~ 
for  Dutch,  Germans,  and  French,  are  here  blended 
with  English,  and  have  no  special  love  for  Old  Eng- 
land. Besides,  some  people  are  always  discontented, 
and  love  change ;  and  exceeding  freedom  and  prosper- 
ity nurse  an  untamable  spirit.  I  have  been  told,  not 
only  by  native  Americans,  but  by  English  emigrants, 
publicly,  that,  within  thirty  or  fifty  years,  the  English 
colonies  in  North  America  may  constitute  a  separate 
state,  entirely  independent  of  England.  But,  as  this 
whole  country  is  towards  the  sea  unguarded,  and  on 
the  frontier  is  kept  uneasy  by  the  French,  these  dan- 
gerous neighbors  are  the  reason  why  the  love  of  these 
colonies  for  their  metropolis  does  not  utterly  decline. 
The  English  government  has  therefore  reason  to  re- 
gard the  French  in  North  America  as  the  chief  power 
that  urges  their  colonies  to  submission." 

The  Swede  heard  but  the  truth,  though  that  truth 
lay  concealed  from  British  statesmen.  Even  during 
the  war,  the  jealous  spirit  of  resistance  to  tyranny  was 
kindled  into  a  fury  at  Boston.  Sir  Charles  Knowles, 
the  British  naval  commander,  whom  Smollett  is  Sc0u>« 
thought  to  have  described  justly  as  "an  officer  without  BI*£ 

J  J  lett. 

resolution,  and  a  man  without  veracity,"  having  been 

deserted  by  some  of  his  crew,  while  lying  off  Nan- 

1747 
tasket,  early  one  morning,  sent  his  boats  up  to  Boston,    NOV. 

and  impressed  seamen  from  vessels,  mechanics  and  la- 
boiers  from  the  wharfs.  "Such  a  surprise  could  not 
be  borne  here,"  wrote  Hutchinson,  who  was  present, 
and  he  assigns,  as  the  reason  of  impatience,  that  "the 
people  had  not  been  used  to  it."  "Men  would  not  be 
contented  with  fair  promises  from  the  governor;"  "the  in*™, 
seizure  and  restraint  of  the  commanders  and  other  offi- 
VOL.  in.  59 


466  CONGRESS  OF  AIX  LA  CHAPELLL. 

CHAP,  cers  who  were  in  town,  was  insisted  upon,  as  the  only 
effectual  method  to  procure  the  release  of  the  inhabit- 
ants aboard  the  ships."  And  the  mob  executed  what 
the  governor  declined.  At  last,  after  three  days  of 
rage  and  resentment,  through  the  mediation  of  the 
house  of  representatives,  order  was  restored.  The 
officers  were  liberated  from  their  irregular  imprison- 
ment; and,  in  return,  most,  if  not  all,  of  the  impressed 
citizens  of  Boston  were  dismissed  from  the  English 
fleet. 

The  alliance  of  Austria  with  Russia  hastened  nego- 
tiations for  the  pacification  of  Europe ;  and  a  congress 
convened  at  Aix  la  Chapelle  to  restore  tranquillity  to 
the  civilized  world.  As  between  England  and  Spain, 
and  between  France  and  England,  after  eight  years  of 
reciprocal  annoyance,  after  an  immense  accumulation 
of  national  debt,  the  condition  of  peace  was  a  return  to 
the  state  before  the  war.  Nothing  was  gained.  Hu- 
manity had  suffered,  without  a  purpose,  and  without  a 
result.  In  the  colonial  world,  Madras  was  restored  for 
Cape  Breton ;  the  boundaries  between  the  British  and 
the  French  provinces  in  America  were  left  unsettled, 
neither  party  acknowledging  the  right  of  the  other  to 
the  basin  of  the  Penobscot  or  of  the  Ohio;  the  frontier 
of  Florida  was  not  traced.  Neither  did  Spain  relin- 
quish the  right  of  searching  English  vessels  suspected 
of  smuggling ;  and,  though  it  was  agreed  that  the  as- 
siento  treaty  should  continue  for  four  years  more,  the 
right  was  soon  abandoned,  under  a  new  convention,  for 
an  inconsiderable  pecuniary  indemnity.  The  principle 
of  the  freedom  of  the  seas  was  asserted  only  by  Frede- 
rick II.  Holland,  remaining  neutral  as  long  as  possi- 
ble, claimed,  under  the  treaty  of  1674,  freedom  of 
Ue35on  goods  for  her  free  ships ;  but  England,  disregarding 


TREATIES    OF   AIX    LA   CHAPELLE.  467 

the  treaty,  captured  and  condemned  her  vessels.     On  CHAP. 

XXIV 

occasion  of  the  war  between  Sweden  and  Russia,  the  ~^v^~ 
principle  was  again  urged  by  the  Dutch,  and  likewise  1748 
rejected  by  the  Swedes.  Even  Prussian  ships  were 
seized;  but  the  monarch  of  Prussia  indemnified  the 
sufferers  by  reprisals  on  English  property.  Of  higher 
questions,  in  which  the  interests  of  civilization  were 
involved,  not  one  was  adjusted.  To  the  balance  of 
power,  sustained  by  standing  armies  of  a  million  of 
men,  the  statesmen  of  that  day  intrusted  the  preserva- 
tion of  tranquillity,  and,  ignorant  of  the  might  of  prin- 
ciples to  mould  the  relations  of  states,  saw  in  Austria 
the  certain  ally  of  England,  in  France  the  natural  ally 
of  Prussia. 

Thus,  after  long  years  of  strife,  of  repose,  and  of 
strife  renewed,  England  and  France  solemnly  agreed 
to  be  at  peace.  The  treaties  of  Aix  la  Chapelle  had 
been  negotiated,  by  the  ablest  statesmen  of  Europe,  in 
the  splendid  forms  of  monarchical  diplomacy.  They 
believed  themselves  the  arbiters  of  mankind,  the  pacif- 
icators of  the  world, — reconstructing  the  colonial  sys- 
tem on  a  basis  which  should  endure  for  ages, — con- 
firming the  peace  of  Europe  by  the  nice  adjustment  of 
material  forces.  At  the  very  time  of  the  congress  of 
Aix  la  Chapelle,  the  woods  of  Virginia  sheltered  the 
youthful  George  Washington,  the  son  of  a  widow. 
Born  by  the  side  of  the  Potomac,  beneath  the  roof 
of  a  Westmoreland  farmer,  almost  from  infancy  his  lot 
had  been  the  lot  of  an  orphan.  No  academy  had  wel- 
comed him  to  its  shades,  no  college  crowned  him  with 
its  honors :  to  read,  to  write,  to  cipher — these  had 
been  his  degrees  in  knowledge.  And  now,  at  sixteen 
years  of  age,  in  quest  of  an  honest  maintenance,  en- 
countering intolerable  toil;  cheered  onward  by  being 


4,68 


GEORGE    WASHINGTON. 


ii.  416- 


CHAP,  able  to  write  to  a  schoolboy  friend,  "Dear  Richard,  a 
v- —  doubloon  is  my  constant  gain  every  day,  and  some- 
1748.  times  six  pistoles;"  "himself  his  own  cook,  having  no 
ing-h*  spit  but  a  forked  stick,  no  plate  but  a  large  chip;" 
|^»a  roaming  over  spurs  of  the  Alleghanies,  and  along  the 
banks  of  the  Shenandoah ;  alive  to  nature,  and  some- 
times "  spending  the  best  of  the  day  in  admiring  the 
trees  and  richness  of  the  land;"  among  skin-clad  sav- 
ages, with  their  scalps  and  rattles,  or  uncouth  emi- 
grants, "that  would  never  speak  English;"  rarely  sleep- 
ing in  a  bed;  holding  a  bearskin  a  splendid  couch;  glad 
of  a  resting-place  for  the  night  upon  a  little  hay,  straw, 
or  fodder,  and  often  camping  in  the  forests,  where  the 
place  nearest  the  fire  was  a  happy  luxury; — this  strip- 
ling surveyor  in  the  woods,  with  no  companion  but 
his  unlettered  associates,  and  no  implements  of  sci- 
ence but  his  compass  and  chain,  contrasted  strangely 
with  the  imperial  magnificence  of  the  congress  of  Aix 
la  Chapelle.  And  yet  God  had  selected,  not  Kau- 
nitz,  nor  Newcastle,  not  a  monarch  of  the  house  of 
Hapsburg,  nor  of  Hanover,  but  the  Virginia  stripling, 
to  give  an  impulse  to  human  affairs,  arid,  as  far  as 
events  can  depend  on  an  individual,  had  placed  the 
rights  and  the  destinies  of  countless  millions  in  the 
keeping  of  the  widow's  son. 


INDEX 


HISTORY    OF    COLONIZATION 


ABENAKIS  of  Maine  solicit  missions,  in. 
135.  War  with,  211.  Language,  238. 

Aborigines,  their  conversation  with  El- 
iot, 11.  95.  Their  language,  HI.  236. 
Manners,  265.  Political  institutions, 
274.  Religion,  234.  Natural  endow- 
ments, 299.  Origin,  306. 

Acadia  settled,  i.  27.  Fortunes  of,  445; 
ii.7U;  in.  186,234. 

Accomacs,  in.  239. 

Aguesseau,  in.  357. 

Aix  la  Chapelle,  congress  of,  HI.  466. 

Alabama  entered  by  Soto,  i.  48.  By  the 
French,  n.  200,  348,  352,  365. 

Albany  founded,  11.  273. 

Alexander's,  Sir  William,  patent,  i.  332. 

Algonquins  war  with  the  Dutch,  n.  288. 
Visited  by  Jesuits,  HI.  128.  Lan- 

f'uage,  237. 
ouez,  Father,  in.  149. 

Ainidas,  his  voyage,  i.  92. 

Anabaptism  in  Massachusetts,  i.  449. 

Anabaptists  popular  reformers,  n.  460. 

Andros,  Edmund,  n.  405.  Lands  at  Bos- 
ton, 427.  In  Virginia,  in.  25. 

Anglo-American.     See  Colonies. 

Annapolis,  Maryland,  HI.  31. 

Anne,  Queen,  war  of,  HI.  206.  Gives 
audience  to  five  sachems,  219. 

Anson's  expedition,  HI.  439. 

Antinomian  controversy,  i.  386. 

Archdale,  John,  in.  16. 

Argall,  i.  146,  148,  151,  152. 

Arkansas  entered  by  Soto,  i.  52.  By  the 
Jesuits,  in.  160. 

Artaguette,  HI.  3G6. 

Assiento,  the,  in.  231.  Benefit  of  it  giv- 
en to  the  South  Sea  company,  401. 

Augustine,  St.,  i.  69. 

Austria,  its  war  of  succession,  HI.  449. 

Ayllon,  voyage  of,  i.  36. 

B. 

Bacon,  Lord,  tolerant,  i.  294.  Inclines 
to  materialism,  H.  329. 


Bacon,  Nathaniel,  his  career,  n.  217 — 
228. 

Baltimore.     See  Calvert.    ,-. 

Bank  of  England  chartered,  in.  191 

Bank  of  France,  ni.  354. 

Barclay,  Robert,  governor  of  New  Jer- 
sey, H.  414. 

Barlow,  his  voyage,  i.  92. 

Behring's  discoveries,  in.  453. 

Bellamont,  Lord,  in  New  York,  HI.  59. 
In  New  England,  82. 

Berkeley,  George,  character  of,  HI. 
372. 

Berkeley,  Sir  William,  in  Virginia,  i.  203. 
In  England,  n.  68.  Plants  Carolina, 
134.  Dissatisfied,  203.  His  severity 
to  Bacon  and  his  friend 8,219,221,231. 
Sails  for  Europe,  233. 

Bienville,  in.  200.  Explores  the  coun- 
try, 202. 

Blake,  Joseph,  n.  172. 

Bloody  Brook,  n.  104. 

Boston  founded,  i.  356.  Antinomian, 
388.  Its  liberality,  n.  109.  Insur- 
gent, 447. 

Bourdonnais,  La,  HI.  453. 

Brackett,  Anne,  11.  110. 

Bradford,  William,  i.  314. 

Bradstreet,  Simon,  n.  74. 

Brebeuf,  Father,  HI.  122.  Character, 
124.  Martyrdom,  140. 

Bressani,  Father,  in.  134. 

Breton,  Cape,  settled  by  the  French, 
in.  235. 

Brown,  John  and  Samuel,  i.  349. 

c. 

Cabot,  John  and  Sebastian,  i.  2 

Calvert,  Sir  George,  Lord  Baltimore 
i.  238.  His  character,  n.  239. 

Calvert,  Charles,  in  Maryland,  n.  237 
Returns  to  England,  240. 

Calvin,  influence  of,  i.  2C6.  Parallel  be- 
tween him  and  Luther,  277. 

Calvinism,  political  meaning  of,  n  461 


470 


INDEX    TO    THE 


Influence  on  laws  of  Massachusetts, 
463.     In  Connecticut,  464. 

Canada,  French  in,  i.  27.  Its  conquest, 
334;  ii.  88;  in.  183,  220.  Jesuits  in, 
120. 

Cancello,  i.  60. 

Canonchet,  n.  102. 

Canonicus,  i.  318. 

Cardross,  Lord,  in  South  Carolina,  u.  173. 

Carolina,  proprietaries  of,  n.  129.  Col- 
onized from  New  England,  131  ;  from 
Virginia,  134;  from  Barbadoes,  130. 
Second  charter,  138.  Its  constitu- 
tions, 145. 

Carolina,  North,  Raleigh's  colonies  in, 
"i.  95—108.  Records,  n.  151.  Early 
legislation,  152.  Locke's  constitution 
rejected,  153.  Its  spirit,  157.  Cul- 
pepper's  insurrection,  159.  Its  early 
days,  165.  Anarchy,  in.  22.  Popula- 
tion, 24.  War  with  the  Tuscaroras, 
320.  Surrenders  its  charter,  330. 

Carolina,  South,  early  settlements,  i.  62. 
Colonized,  11. 166.  Government,  168. 
Slavery,  171.  Character,  172.  Hu- 
guenots, 174.  Civil  contest,  183.  Par- 
ties in,  in.  13.  Constitution  abrogated, 
15.  Huguenots  enfranchised,  17.  High 
Church  faction,  18.  Produce  of,  20. 
Expedition  against  St.  Augustine,  209. 
Attacked  by  the  French,  211.  Popu- 
lar revolution,  328.  War  with  the 
Yamassees,  326. 

Caron,  Le,  in.  118. 

Cartier,  his  voyage,  i.  19.  At  Mont- 
Real,  21. 

Carteret,  Philip,  n.  317. 

Carver,  John,  i.  310. 

Catawbas,  in.  245. 

Cayugas,  n.  417. 

Champlain  in  Canada,  I.  25.  Explores 
Lake  Champlain,  28.  Builds  Fort  St. 
Louis,  29.  Establishes  missions,  in. 
121. 

Charles  I.,  i.  194.  Convenes  a  parlia- 
ment, n.  2.  Trial,  15. 

Charles  II.,  his  restoration,  n.  29.  Char- 
acter, 48. 

Charleston  founded,  n.  169. 

Chauvin  obtains  a  patent,  i.  25. 

Chaumonot,  Father,  in.  144. 

Cherokees,  HI.  246.     Treaty  with,  332. 

Cheesman,  Edmund,  n.  230. 

(  hickasas,  Soto  amongst,  i.  49.  Their 
residence,  in.  160,  249.  French  wars 
with,  365.  Visit  Oglethorpe,  433. 

Chippewas,  in.  150. 

Clarendon,  ministry  of,  11.  435. 

Clarke,  John,  n.  61. 

Clayborne,  William,  i.  200,  236,  246, 
249. 

Coligny  plans  settlements,  i.  61—63. 

Colleton,  James,  11.  186. 

Colonies,  Anglo-American,  general  char- 


acter, H.  453.  Origin,  454.  Christian 
455.  Relations  with  parliament,  in. 
100.  Taxation,  101.  Judiciary,  103. 
Currency,  104.  Charters,  107.  Prog- 
ress, 3(59.  Settlements,  371.  Schools, 
373.  Press,  374.  Relations  with  me- 
tropolis, 380.  Checks  on  their  indus- 
try, 384.  Sugar  colonies  favored,  385. 
Paper  money  system,  366.  Monopoly 
of  trees  for  masts,  3!)0.  Slaves  in,  41o 
Tend  to  independence,  464. 

Colonies,  European,  system  of,  I.  212, 
&c. ;  n.42;  in.  113,  &c. 

Colonies,  New  England.  See  New  Eng- 
land. 

Columbus,  i.  6. 

Congress  of  Indians,  in.  154. 

Congress,  first  American,  in.  183. 

Connecticut  colonized,  i.  396.  Its  con- 
stitution, 402.  First  charter,  n.  54. 
Life  in,  57.  Uninterrupted  peace,  60. 
Hartford  and  New  Haven  united,  83. 
Dutch  settlement  in,  2ri3.  Andros  in, 
406.  Its  charter  hidden,  432.  Under 
William  and  Mary,  in.  66.  Law  of 
inheritance,  392. 

Copley,  Lionel,  in.  31. 

Coramines,  or  Corees,  in.  239. 

Cotton  cultivated,  i.  179.  Manufactures 
of,  416. 

Cotton,  John,  sketcli  of,  363. 

Credit,  bills  of,  in.  183,  209,  387. 

Cromwell,  Oliver,  his  commercial  poli- 
cy, i.  217.  Favors  New  England,  446. 
Sincerity,  n.  11.  Character,  20. 

Cromwell,  Richard,  11.  27. 

Crozat,  Anthony,  in.  347. 

Culpepper,  John,  his  insurrection,  n 
159.  Sent  to  England  for  trial,  160. 

Culpepper,  Lord,  obtains  a  patent,  H 
209.  Governor  of  Virginia,  245. 

D. 

Dablon,  Father,  in.  143,  152 

Dahcotas,  HI.  243. 

Dale,  Sir  Thomas,  i.  142. 

Danforth  in  Maine,  11.  114. 

Daniel,  Robert,  in.  21. 

Daniel,  Father,  in.  122.  Martyrdom,  133 

Dare,  Virginia,  i.  105. 

Davenport,  John,  establishes  New  Ha- 
ven colony,  i.  403. 

Deerfield  burned,  in  212. 

De  La  Ware,  i.  137.  In  Virginia,  140 
Illness,  142.  In  parliament,  149. 
Death,  152. 

Delaware  colonized  by  the  Dutch,  n. 
281.  By  the  Swedes,  287.  Separated 
from  Pennsylvania,  in.  44.  See  New 
Sweden,  and  Pennsylvania. 

Detroit  founded,  in.  194.  Attacked  by 
the  Foxes,  224. 

Dixwell,  John,  n.  35. 


HISTORY    OF    COLONIZATION. 


471 


Drake,  Sir  Francis,  i.  86. 

Dreuillettes,  Father,  in.  135. 

Drummond,  William,  n.  135.  Advises 
to  depose  Berkeley,  224.  Fires  his 
own  house,  226.  His  execution,  231. 

Drummond,  Sarah,  n.  226. 

Dudley,  Joseph,  n.  427;  in.  54,  99. 

Dustin,  Hannah,  in.  188. 

Dutch  West  India  Company,  11.  260. 

Dutch  Colonies.     See  New  Netherland. 

Dyar,  Mary,  i.  456. 

E. 

Eaton,  Theophilus,  governor  of  New 
Haven,  i.  403. 

Edwards,  Jonathan,  in.  399. 

Elizabeth,  Queen,  i.  282. 

Eliot,  John,  n.  94. 

Endicott,  John,  i.  341;  n.  82. 

England,  its  maritime  discoveries,  i.  7, 
75,  76,  80.  First  attempt  to  plant  a 
colony,  84.  Favors  colonization,  118. 
Early  slave  trade,  173.  Claims  Maine 
and  Acadia,  148.  Restrictive  com- 
mercial policy  of,  194.  The  reforma- 
tion in,  274.  Jealous  of  New  England, 
405.  Its  democratic  revolution,  n.  1. 
Long  parliament,  4.  Civil  war,  8. 
Presbyterians  and  Independents,  9. 
Cromwell,  19.  Restoration,  29.  Nav- 
igation acts,  42.  Royal  commissioners 
for  New  England,  77.  Its  history  from 
1660  to  1688,  434.  Clarendon's  min- 
istry, 435.  The  cabal,  435.  Shaftes- 
bury's,  436.  Danby's,  437.  Shaftes- 
bury,  438.  Tendency  to  despotism, 
440.  Tories  and  whigs,  443.  Its  aris- 
tocratic revolution,  445 ;  m.3,9.  War 
with  France,  175.  Queen  Anne's 
war,  208.  Resolves  on  colonial  con- 
quests, 219.  Sends  a  fleet  into  the 
St.  Lawrence,  223.  Seeks  to  engross 
the  slave  trade,  231.  Extent  of  pos- 
sessions, 235.  Changes  its  dynasty, 
322.  Its  pacific  policy,  325.  Claims 
of,  340.  Relations  with  the  colonies, 
380.  With  Spain,  400.  It  favors  the 
slave  trade,  402.  Encroaches  on  Span- 
ish territory,  418,  435.  War  with 
Spain,  438. 

Erie,  first  vessel  on,  in.  164. 

Etchemins,  HI.  237. 

F. 

Fenwick,  John,  purchases  half  New  Jer- 
sey, n.  357. 

Fernandez,  Francisco,  i.  34. 

Finland,  emigrants  from,  n.  286. 

Five  Nations.     See  Iroquois. 

Fletcher,  Benjamin,  in  Pennsylvania, 
HI.  37.  In  New  York,  56.  In  Con- 
necticut, 67 


Fleury,  Cardinal,  in.   325.     Averse  to 

war,  in.  449. 
Florida  discovered,  i.  31.     Abandoned, 

60.  Huguenots,  63.    Melendez  in,  66. 
Colonized,  69.     Expeditions  against, 
in.  209, 432. 

Fox,  George,  n.  154.     Education,  331. 

Influence  of  the  age  on  him,  354.   His 

death,  404. 
France,   first  voyages,  i.   15.     Trading 

voyages  of,  25.     Settles   Acadia  ana 

Canada,  27.     Huguenot   colonies   of, 

61.  Its    settlements     pillaged,     148. 
Loses   Acadia,  445.     Persecutes   the 
Huguenots,  11.   174.     War   with   the 
Five   Nations,  419—423.      Character 
of  its  monarchy,  467.    Its  rivalry  with 
England,    in.    115.      Missions,     128. 
Contends   for  the    fisheries    and   the 
west,  175.     War  with  England,  176, 
Indian  alliance,  177.     War  with  the 
Iroquois,    189.      Colonial   boundaries, 
192.     Excludes  England  from  Louis- 
iana, 203.     Sends  Indians  into  New 
England,  214.   Desires  peace,  in.  225 
Extent  of  her  possessions,  235.   Builds 
Crown  Point  and  Niagara  forts,  341. 
Influence  on  the  Ohio,  346.   War  with 
Spain,  claims  Texas,  353.     War  with 
the  Natchez,  358.     Its  government  of 
Louisiana,  364.    War  with  the  Chick- 
asas,  365      With   England,  450.     Ill 
success  of  her  fleets,  463. 

Franciscans  in  Maine,  in.  136. 

Franklin,  Benjamin,  his  character,  in. 
375.  Defends  freedom  of  the  press, 
395.  His  volunteer  militia,  456. 

Frederica  founded,  in.  430. 

Frederick  II.,  HI.  452. 

Friends.     See  Quakers. 

Frobisher's  voyages,  i.  81. 

Frontenac's  expedition,  in.  182. 

G. 

Garay,  Francisco,  i.  35. 

Gates,  Sir  Thomas,  i.  143,  149. 

George  I.,  in.  322. 

Georgia,  colonization  of,  proposed,  in. 
417.  Charter  for,  419.  Oglethorpe  in, 
420.  Indians  in,422.  Moravians  in, 423. 
Slavery  interdicted,  426.  Highlanders 
in,  427.  The  Wesleys  and  Whitefield, 
429.  Extends  its  boundaries,  431. 
See  Oglethorpe. 

Gilbert,  Sir  Humphrey,  i.  88,  91. 

Goffe,  William,  n.  35,  104. 

Gomez,  Stephen,  i.  38. 

Gorges,  Sir  Ferdinand,  i.  110,  270.  337 
Death,  429. 

Gorges,  Robert,  i.  326. 

Gorton,  Samuel,  i.  419. 

Gosnold,  Bartholomew,  i.  111.  Death 
127. 


472 


INDEX   TO   THE 


Gourgues,  Dominic  de,  i.  72. 

Grand  Bank,  fisheries  of,  i.  87. 

Grijalva,  i.  35. 

Grotius  opposes  American  colonization, 

ii.  274. 
Gustavus  Adolphus,  11.  284. 

H. 

Hakluyt,  Richard,  1. 113, 119. 

Hamilton,  Andrew,  HI.  393. 

Hampden,  John,  i.  411. 

Hansford,  Thomas,  11.  229. 

Hartford,  11.  283. 

Harvard  College  founded,  i.  459. 

Harvey,  John,  i.  197.     Impeached,  201. 

Haverhill  massacre,  HI.  215. 

Hayncs,  John,  i.  362. 

Hennepin,  Father,  HI.  163.  His  false- 
hood, 202. 

Higginson,  Francis,  i.  346. 

Highlanders  in  Georgia,  in.  427. 

History,  its  criterion,  HI.  397.  A  sci- 
ence, 398.  The  record  of  God's  prov- 
idence, 399. 

Hooker,  Thomas,  character  of,  i.  363. 

Hooper,  the  martyr,  i.  280. 

Howard,  of  Effingham,  n.  249. 

Hudson's  Bay,  i.  12,82;  n.270;  in.  180. 

Hudson,  Henry,  n.  264.  In  the  North 
River,  266.  Last  voyage  of,  270. 
Death,  271. 

Huguenots  in  Canada,  i.  28.  In  Flori 
da,  64.  In  South  Carolina,  n.  174.  In 
New  Netherlands,  302. 

Hunter,  Robert,  HI.  64. 

Hurons,  i.  29 ;  in.  121.  Receive  mis- 
sions, 123.  Their  war  with  the  Five 
Nations,  HI.  138. 

Huron-Iroquois  tribes,  in.  243. 

Hutchinson,  Anne,  i.  388.  Exiled,  391. 
Death,  394;  n.  290. 

Hyde,  Edward,  Lord  Cornbury,  HI.  48. 
Character,  60. 


Iberville,  Lemoine  d',  HI.  199. 

Icelandic  voyages,  i.  3;  HI.  313. 

Illinois  visited  by  Jesuits,  in.  155.  Ear- 
ly history  of,  165.  A  fort  built  in,  167. 
Permanent  settlement  in,  195. 

Illinois  tribe,  in.  158,  241. 

Independents,  origin  of,  i.  287. 

Indiana  colonized,  in.  346. 

Indians.     See  Aborigines. 

Indies,  East,  war  in,  in.  452. 

Ingle,  rebellion  of,  i.  254. 

Ingoldsby  in  New  York,  in.  53. 

Iowa  visited  by  Jesuits,  in.  157. 

lowas,  Le  Sueur  among,  HI.  204. 

Iroquois  attacked  by  Champlain,  i.  28. 
Seen  by  Smith,  134.  In  Connecticut, 
403.  Treaty  *ith,  n.  255,  322.  Their 


tribes  and  institutions,  417.     Wars  of, 

418.  Relations    with    New   France, 

419.  Treaty  with   the  English,   420. 
Meet  De  la  Barre,  422.     Their  chiefs 
stolen,  425.     Returned,  426.     Visited 
by  Jesuits,  HI.  132.     Treaty  with  the 
French,  135.     War  with  Hurons,  138. 
Missions  among,  141.   Invade  Illinois, 
167.     Sack  Montreal,  182.     Contend 
with  the  French,  189.     Make  peace, 
193.     Their   neutrality,  211.     Chiefs 
visit  England,  219.    Treat  with  the 
French,  221.    Their  abode,  244      Re- 
ceive  the  Tuscaroras,  322.  Cede  lands, 
341.    Receive  the  French,  342.    Cede 
the  West  to  the  English,  455. 

J. 

James  I.,  his  relations  with  Virginia,  i. 
120,  136,  145,  156,  187,  193.  Grants 
a  charter  for  New  England,  272.  His 
character,  291. 

James  II.  sends  rebels  to  Virginia,  H. 
250.  Becomes  a  proprietary,  313. 
Grants  New  Jersey,  315.  Patron  of 
the  slave  trade,  317.  Arbitrary,  320. 
Favors  William  Penn,  364.  His  char- 
acter, 407.  His  colonial  policy,  408. 
Taxes  colonial  commerce,  410,  411, 
413,  415.  His  career  as  king,  441. 
His  flight,  446. 

Jamestown  founded,  i.  125.  Burned.  H. 
228. 

Jeffries,  n.  250, 413. 

Jenkins,  in.  436. 

Jesuits  on  the  Kennebec,  i.  27.  On  the 
Penobscot,28.  Order  founded,  HI.  120. 
Extend  French  dominion,  121.  Among 
the  Hurons,  123  At  Montreal,  127. 
Among  the  Mohawks,  133.  On  the 
Kennebec,  136.  Their  heroism,  141. 
Among  the  Onondagas,  143.  Mis- 
sion to  the  west,  149.  On  the  Mis- 
sissippi, 157.  Law  against,  193. 

Jogues,  Father,  HI.  133.  His  martyr- 
dom, 137. 

Johnson,  Arabella,  i.  357. 

Joliet,  in.  155. 

K. 

Kaskaskia,  in.  195. 

Keith,  George,  HI.  36.     An  abortionist, 

HI.  408. 

Kidd,  William,  HI.  60. 
Kieft,  ii.  287. 

L. 

Lallemand,  Father,  HI.  122—140. 

Law,  John,  in.  349.     His  credit  system, 

350.     His  bank,  354.     Downfall,  357. 
Leisler,  Jacob,  n.  450;  i n.51 — 54.    His 

execution,  55.  Reversal  of  attainder,59. 


HISTORY    OF  COLONIZATION. 


473 


Lenni-Lenape,  n.  383.  In  New  Jersey, 
HI.  231). 

Leon,  Ponce  de,  discovers  Florida,  i.  33. 

Locke,  John,  his  character,  n.  144. 
Contrasted  with  Penn,  n.  379. 

Logan,  Jarnes,  HI.  44,  345. 

Louis  XIV.  persecutes  the  Huguenots, 
n.  175.  His  policy,  424.  Treachery, 
426.  Absolute,  HI.  115.  Defends  le- 
gitimacy, 175.  Recognizes  William, 
192.  His  cabinet,  2U8.  His  old  acre, 
225.  Deat.h,  323. 

Louisburg  founded,  HI.  235.  Siege  of, 
460. 

Louisiana  claimed  by  France,  HI.  168. 
First  colony  sails,  169.  Colonized  by 
D'Iberville,  200.  Extent  o£  343. 
Under  Crozart,  347.  The  Mississippi 
company,  351.  Effect  of  Law's  fall, 
358.  Its  war  with  the  Natchez,  360. 
The  crown  resumes  the  government, 
364.  War  with  the  Chickasas,  366. 
Condition  in  1740,  368. 

Lovewell's  fight,  in.  338. 

Lloyd,  Thomas,  in.  35. 

Ludwell,  Philip,  in.  15. 

Luther,  Martin,  i.  274,277;  n.  459. 

M. 

Maine  visited,  i.  27.     Colonized  by  the 


in  part  to  the  Pilgrims,  320.  To  Gor 
ges,  328.  Colonized,  331,  336.  Its 
court  organized,  337.  Early  history, 
428.  Annexed  to  Massachusetts,  430. 
Royal  commissioners  in,  n.  86.  Indian 
war,  210.  New  government,  114. 
Indian  war,  HI.  180,  335. 

Maintenon,  Madame  de,  n.  175;  HI.  323. 

Manhattan  occupied,  11.  272. 

Manigault,  Judith,  n.  180. 

Marest,  Gabriel,  in.  1(J6. 

Markham,  in.  40. 

Marquette,  Father,  HI.  152,  157,  161. 

Maryland,  discovery  of,  236.  First 
charter,  241.  Freedom  of  conscience, 
244.  Catholics  settle  at  St.  Mary's, 
247.  Clayborne's  claims,  248.  In- 
gle's rebellion,  254.  Act  for  religious 
liberty,  255.  During  the  common- 
wealth, 258.  During  the  protectorate, 
260.  Power  of  the  people  asserted, 
264.  After  the  restoration,  n.  234. 
Baltimore's  mild  sway,  236.  Bacon- 
ists  obtain  influence,  241.  Effect  of 
the  revolution  of  1688,  in.  30.  Prot- 
estant association,  30.  Produce  and 
manufactures,  33.  Restlessness,  395. 

Mascoutins,  in.  242. 

Mason  obtains  a  patent,  i.  328. 

Massachusetts.     The  company  purchase 

VOL.  in.  60 


lands,  i.  340.  Obtain  a  patent,  342. 
Emigration  under  Higginson,  347. 
Religious  independence,  348.  The 
conclusions,  351.  Transfer  of  the 
charter,  352.  Wmthrop's  emigration, 
354.  First  autumn  and  winter,  357. 
Government  organized,  359.  Gov- 
ernor visits  Plymouth,  362.  Enemies 
in  England,  405.  A  quo  warranto,  409. 
Threatens  to  declare  itself  independ- 
ent, 413.  Favored  by  the  Long  Par- 
liament, 416.  Inclines  to  toleration, 
432  A  synod,  443.  Free  schools, 
459.  Not  in  favor  with  Charles  II., 
H.  71.  Refuses  to  yield,  76.  Royal 
commissioners  in,  85.  Prospers  by 
neglect,  91.  Purchases  Maine,  113. 
Its  liberties  in  danger,  121.  Defends 
its  charter,  123.  Its  charter  abroga- 
ted, 127.  Andros  arrives,  427.  Epis- 
copal service,  428.  Arbitrary  taxa- 
tion, 429.  Solicits  the  restoration  of 
its  charter,  HI.  78.  Territory  en- 
larged, 81.  Plans  the  conquest  of 
Acadia,  217.  Is  refused  a  synod,  391 
Withholds  a  fixed  salary  from  the 
royal  governor,  391.  Recovers  im 
pressed  seamen,  465. 

Massasoit,  I.  317. 

Masts,  ii.89;  in.  106,391. 

Mather,  Cotton,  HI.  71.  Champion  of 
witchcraft,  76.  Wonders  of  the  in- 
visible world,  95,  98. 

Mather,  Increase,  n.  434;  HI.  71,  83, 89. 
375. 

Mayhew,  n.  97. 

Melendez,  i.  66. 

Mermet,  Father,  m.  198. 

Mesnard,  Father  Rene,  m.  144.  Lost 
among  the  Chippewas,  147. 

Miamis,  in.  240. 

Miantonomoh,  i.  361,  423,  424. 

Michigan  visited  by  Jesuits,  HI.  128, 152, 
155.  French  in,  194. 

Micmacs,  in.  237. 

Milborne,  HI.  52.     Executed,  54. 

Miller,  governor  of  Carolina,  n.  156. 

Miruelo  Diego,  i.  34. 

Mississippi  company,  HI.  350, 354. 

Mississippi  River  discovered,  i.  51 ;  HI. 
157. 

Mississippi  State,  Soto  in,  i.  51.  French 
settlement,  in.  201,  349.  Events  in. 
366. 

Missouri  visited  by  De  Soto>  i.  52.  The 
French,  m.  159. 

Mobile,  Soto  at,  i.  48.  Settled,  HI. 
205,  206. 

Mobilian  language,  HI.  249. 

Mohawks,  n.  417. 

Mohegans,  i.  423. 

Monk,  Duke  of  Albemarle,  n.  28. 

Montreal,  i.  21 ;  in.  127, 179. 

Moravians,  in.  423. 


474 


INDEX  TO  THE 


Morris,  ni.  434. 

Muskhocrees,   in.  250.     Relations  with 

Georgia,  420,  434. 
Muskhogee-Chocta,  in.  249. 

N. 

Nanticokes,  in.  239. 

Narragansetts,  i.  318,  398.  Peace  with, 
424.  War  with,  11.  104.  Their  lan- 
guage, in.  23d. 

Narvaez,  i.  39. 

Natchez,  in.  204,  349. 

Natchez  tribe,  in.  248,  358,  363. 

Navigation  act,  origin  of,  i.  212.  Of 
Charles  II.,  n.  42. 

New  Albion,  n.  296. 

New  Amsterdam,  11.  277. 

New  Belgium.     See  New  Netherland. 

New  England,  confederacy  of  the  colo- 
nies of,  420.  Royal  commissioners 
for,  n.  77.  Population  of,  93.  In- 
dians in,  93.  War  with  King  Philip, 
101.  The  colonies  consolidated,  433. 
Desire  to  conquer  New  France,  HI.  78. 
Gloomy  years  of,  186.  North-eastern 
boundary,  333.  Resolve  to  conquer 
Louisburg,  457. 

Newfoundland,  1. 15,87;  ni.178, 192,217. 

New  France.     See  Canada. 

New  Hampshire  visited  by  Pring,  i.  327. 
Settled,  328.  Annexed  to  Massachu- 
setts, 418.  Royal  commissioners  in, 
ii.  86.  Made  a  royal  province,  115. 
Disputes  with  Cranfield,  117.  Its 
series  of  lawsuits,  HI.  82. 

New  Haven  founded,  i.  403. 

New  Jersey.  (See  New  Netherland.) 
Why  so  named,  n.  315.  Quakers  and 
Puritans  in,  310.  Slavery  introduced, 
317.  Its  laws,  319.  West  New  Jer- 
sey bought  by  Quakers,  357.  Treaty 
with  the  Indians,  359.  Dispute  with 
the  duke  of  York,  360.  Its  prosperi- 
ty, 3G2.  Andros  in  East  New  Jersey, 
410.  Scotch  emigrants,  411.  Under 
Andros,  in.  46.  Under  Lord  Cornbu- 
ry,  48, 50,  63. 

New  Netherland  discovered  by  Hud- 
son, n.  264.  Description  of,  266,  2(59. 
Colonized,  274.  Its  charter,  279.  In- 
dian wars,  288.  Truce  made  by  R. 
Williams,  291 .  Strife  with  New  Eng- 
land, 295.  Conquers  New  Sweden, 
296.  Tolerant,  300.  Slavery  intro- 
duced, 303.  Struggle  of  the  people 
for  power,  304  Under  Stuyvesant, 
306  Dispute  with  Baltimore  a  agent, 
308  With  New  England,  310.  Con- 
quered by  England,  313.  Recovered 
by  the  Dutch,  322.  Reconquered  by 
the  English,  325.  See  New  York. 

New  Orleans  founded,  in.  351. 

New  Sweden,  De  Vries's  colony,  n.  281. 


Swedes  and  Finns  in,  286.  Con- 
quest by  the  Dutch,  2D6.  Subject  to 
the  city  of  Amsterdam,  298. 

New  York.  (See  New  Netherland.) 
Andros  in,  n.  405.  Free  trade,  415. 
Charter  of  liberties,  416.  Dread  of 
Popery,  in.  50.  Protestants  under 
Leisler,  51.  Ingoldsby  arrives,  53. 
Fletcher's  administration,  56.  Under 
Bellamont,  59.  Under  Cornbury,  00. 
Under  Hunter,  64.  Builds  a  fort  at 
Oswego,  339.  Contests  with  Cosby, 
393. 

Niagara,  Fort,  n.  424  ;  HI.  342 

Nicholson,  Francis,  in.  25 

Norridgewock  village,  in.  333.  Burned, 
330. 

Norton,  John,  n.  74. 

Nova  Scotia  discovered,  i.  17.  Patent 
of,  332.  Conquest  and  vicissitudes  of, 
445;  ii.  70;  in.  186,  218,  234,  457. 

o. 

Oglethorpe,  James,  m.  418.  Treats 
with  the  Indians,  421.  Visits  the  High- 
land emigrants,  431.  Besieges  St.  Au- 
gustine, 443.  His  character,  446. 

Ohio,  the  French  on  the,  HI.  343. 

Olive,  Thomas,  in.  50. 

Oneidas,  n.  417. 

.Onondagas,  n.  417.  Their  magnanimi- 
ty, 425.  Jesuits  among,  HI.  143. 

Orleans,  Philip  of,  in.  323. 

Ottawas,  in.  241. 

Oxenstiern  colonizes  Delaware,  n.  285. 

P. 

Pamlicos,  m.  239. 

Paper  money,  in.  186, 209,350, 355, 38 ,y. 

Pemaquid  destroyed,  in.  181. 

Penn,  William,  11.  303.  His  charter, 
364.  Opposes  monopoly,  806.  Sails 
for  the  Delaware,  369.  Previous  life 
of,  370.  Contrasted  with  Locke,  37i> 
Penn  on  the  Delaware,  382.  Treaty 
with  the  Indians,  383.  Disputes  with 
Baltimore,  387.  Bids  farewell  to  the 
colony,  395.  Advocates  English  free- 
dom, 397.  His  fame,  400.  Thrice 
arrested,  HI.  39.  Founds  a  democra- 
cy, 44. 

Pennsylvania.  (SeePenn.)  Witchcraft 
in,  n.  393.  Slavery,  403.  George 
Keith's  schism,  in.  36.  Under  Fletch- 
er, 37.  New  constitution,  42.  Dela- 
ware forever  separated  from  it,  44, 
Few  checks  on  popular  power,  394. 
Its  governor  meets  the  Iroquois  depu 
ties,  455.  Military  organization,  456 

Peorias,  in.  197. 

Pepperell,  William,  m.  458. 

Pequods,  war  with  the,  i  397,  400. 


HISTORY  OF  COLONIZATION. 


475 


Peters,  Hugh,  arrives,  i.  383.   His  death, 

ii.  32. 

Philadelphia  founded,  n.  389. 

Philip,  King,  n.  98. 

Phipps,  William,  HI.  83. 

Pilgrims,  their  flight,  i.  301.  At  Ley- 
den,  302.  Sail  for  America,  307.  Ar- 
rive at  Cape  Cod,  309.  Land  at 
Plymouth,  313.  Their  sufferings,  314. 

Plymouth  colony,  royal  commissioners 
in,  n.  84.  Revolution  in,  449.  United 
with  Massachusetts,  in.  81.  See  Pil- 
grims. 

Pocahontas,  i.  131,  146. 

Poisson,  Du,  HI.  361. 

Pokanokets,  n.98;  in.  238. 

Port  Royal  founded,  i.  26.  Its  name 
changed  to  Annapolis,  in.  218. 

Portugal,  voyages  of,  i.  14.  Slavery  in, 
1GG.  Its  colonial  system,  in.  113. 

Potawatomies,  HI.  242. 

Poutrincourt's  discoveries,  I.  26. 

Powhatan,  i.  125.     Death,  181. 

Pring,  Martin,  in  Maine,  i.  113. 

Providence  founded,  i.  379.  See  Rhode 
Island. 

Puritans,  i.  279.  Conference  with,  296. 
Character  of,  460. 

a. 

Quakerism,  n.  326.  A  plebeian  sect,  330. 
A  universal  religion,  336.  Inner  Light, 

337.  Its   method   that  of  Descartes, 

338.  Repels   superstition,   340.      Is 
primitive   Christianity,   343.     Agrees 
with  Plato,  344.     Its  rule  of  conduct, 
344.     No  hireling  ministry,  348.     An 
absolute  democracy,  352. 

Quakers  persecuted  in  Massachusetts, 
i.  451.  In  North  Carolina,  n.  153.  In 
Virginia,  201.  In  Maryland,  237.  In 
New  Jersey,  357.  Their  legislation, 
359.  In  Pennsylvania,  389. 

Quebec  founded,  i.  28.  Capitulates  to 
the  English,  334.  A  college  and  hos- 
pital built,  HI.  126.  A  New  England 
fleet  before  it,  185.  Threatened,  222. 

R. 

Raleigh,  Walter,  i.  74.  Furnishes  Gil- 
bert with  a  ship,  90.  Obtains  a  pat- 
ent, 92.  Colonizes  North  Carolina, 
95.  Attempts  an  agricultural  colony, 
103.  Founds  the  city  of  Raleigh,  104. 
His  assigns,  107.  Character  of,  108. 
A  prisoner,  136. 

Randolph,  Edward,  n.  111. 

Rasles,  Sebastian,  HI.  333,  337. 

Raymbault,  Father,  in.  129,  131,132. 

Reformation  in  England,  i.  274. 

Regicides,  n  32. 

Revolution  of  1688,  n.  445.     Effect  on 


New  England,  447.  On  New  York, 
450.  On  New  Jersey,  451.  Its  po- 
litical theory,  in.  9.  Its  character,  12. 
Loved  privilege,  82. 

Rhode  Island,  island  of,  i.  392. 

Rhode  Island,  colony  of,  first  settled,  I. 
379.  Its  charter,  425.  Fostered  by 
Charles  II.,  n.  61.  New  charter,  62. 
Freedom  of  conscience  in,  65.  Loses 
its  liberty,  431.  Its  population,  HI.  69. 

Ribault  discovers  River  St.  John,  i.  61. 
Leaves  a  colony  in  Carolina,  62.  Re- 
visits it,  66. 

Rice  introduced  into  Carolina,    n.  20. 

Roberval's  voyages,  i.  22. 

Robinson,  John,  i.  306.     His  death,  321. 

Rolfe,  Thomas,  i.  146. 

Rowlandson,  Mary,  11.  106. 

Russia  makes  discoveries,  in.  453. 

Rut's  voyage,  i.  76. 

Ryswick,  peace  of,  in.  192. 

S. 

Sagadahock  settled,  i.  268.  Garrison 
in,  n.  408. 

St.  Augustine  founded,  i.  69. 

St.  John,  Lord  Bolingbroke,  in.  219. 

St.  Lawrence  discovered,  i.  20. 

St.  Mary,  central  Jesuit  station,  HI.  125 

Salem,  i.  339.     Witchcraft  in,  in.  84. 

Salle,  La,  in.  162.  Descends  the  Mis- 
sissippi, 168.  Leads  a  colony  to  Lou- 
isiana, 169.  In  Texas,  170.  Murdered, 
173. 

Saltonstall,  Richard,  denounces  the 
slave  trade,  i.  174. 

Samoset,  31 6. 

Savannah,  HI.  420. 

Schenectady  destroyed,  in.  182. 

Senecas,  n.  417. 

Separatists,  288. 

Shaftesbury,  Lord,  sketch  of,  n.  139 
Minister,  436. 

Shawnees,  111.  240. 

Silleri,  HI.  127. 

Sioux,  in.  131. 

Slavery,  history  of,  I.  159.  In  the  mid- 
dle ages,  161.  Origin  of  negro  slavery, 
165.  In  Spain  and  Portugal,  166.  Of 
Indians,  167.  In  the  West  Indies, 
169.  Opinion  on,  171.  In  Massachu- 
setts, 174.  In  Virginia,  176.  In  South 
Carolina,  n.  171.  In  New  Nether- 
lands, 303.  In  New  Jersey,  317.  In 
Pennsylvania,  405.  In  Georgia.  HI. 
426,  448. 

Slaves,  negro,  trade  in,  by  England,  i. 
173.  By  Massachusetts  men,  174.  By 
English  African  company,  n.  70.  By 
the  Dutch,  280.  By  the  English,  HI. 
232,  402.  Their  condition  in  Africa, 
403.  In  America,  406.  Their  num- 
bers, 406.  Labors,  407.  Emancipa- 


476 


INDEX   TO  THE 


tion,  408.  Importation  resisted  by 
colonies,  410.  Insisted  on  by  Eng- 
land, 411. 

Sloughter  in  New  York,  HI.  53. 

Smith,  John,  i.  118.  On  the  James  Riv- 
er, 125.  His  early  life,  127.  Engages 
in  discoveries,  129.  Is  taken  prisoner, 
130.  Explores  the  Chesapeake,  133. 
Ascends  the  Potomac,  134.  Enforces 
industry,  135.  Returns  to  England, 
138.  Volunteers  his  services  in  Vir- 
ginia, 184.  Explores  the  coast  from 
Cape  Cod  to  the  Penobscot,  269. 

Smith,  Thomas,  HI.  15. 

Sokokis,  HI.  238. 

Somers,  in.  4. 

Sothel,  Seth,  11.  161.  His  administra- 
tion, 163. 

Soto,  Ferdinand  de,  i.  41 .  Sails  for  Flori- 
da, 42.  In  Georgia,  46.  Alabama,  48. 
Discovers  the  Mississippi,  51.  In  Ar- 
kansas and  Missouri,  52.  Death,  56. 

Spain.  Her  love  of  adventure,  i.  30. 
Discovers  Florida,  32.  In  the  Gulf 
of  Mexico,  35.  On  the  Mississippi, 
51.  Her  missions,  60.  Colonizes  Flori- 
da, 66.  Extent  of  her  American  pos- 
sessions, 73.  Invades  South  Carolina, 
ii.  174.  Her  colonial  system,  in.  114. 
War  of  the  succession,  206.  Effect 
of  the  peace  of  Utrecht,  227.  War 
with  France,  353.  Her  relations  with 
England,  400.  Contests  with  English 
smugglers,  435.  War  with  England, 
437.  ^Invades  Georgia,  444. 

Spotswood,  n.  455;  in.  23,  30 

Standish,  Miles,  i.  316. 

Stoughton,  William,  ni.83. 

Stranord's,  Lord,  attainder,  n.  5. 

Stuarts,  commercial  policy,  i.  218.  Their 
restoration,  n.  1.  Misfortunes  HI.  1. 

Stuyvesant,  n.  203,300. 

Susquehannahs,  war  with,  n.  215. 

Swiss  on  the  Savannah,  HI.  417. 

T. 

Taylor,  Jeremy,  i.  376. 

Texas,  a  part  of  Louisiana,  HI.  171. 

Tobacco,  used  as  currency,  i.  151. 

Tonti,  in.  163,  167. 

Tuscaroras,  HI.  245.     War  with,  319. 

Twiller,  Walter  Van,  n.  282. 

u. 

lichees,  in.  247. 

Uncas,  i.  399. 

Underbill,  John,  i.  399;  n.  292. 

Ursuline  convent  at  Quebec,  in.  127. 

Utrecht,  peace  of,  HI.  225. 

V. 

Vane,  Sir  Henry,  arrives,  i.  383.  His 
character,  1 1. 3b.  Trial,  38.  Death,  40. 


Van  Rensselaer  purchases  land,  u.  280 

Vermont,  in.  370. 

Vernon  at  Porto  Bello,  in    439      Car- 
thagena,  441. 

Verrazzani,  i.  15. 

Vincennes,  in.  366. 

Vincennes,  town  of,  in.  346. 

Virginia,  i.  95,  117.  First  charter,  120 
Its  code  of  laws,  122.  Colonists  em- 
bark for,  123.  Colonized,  124.  Weak- 
ened by  dissensions,  125.  And  sick- 
ness, 127.  Smith's  administration, 
134.  New  charter,  136.  Suffers  from 
famine,  139.  Relieved  by  Lord  Dela- 
ware, 140.  Martial  law  introduced, 
143.  Third  patent,  145.  Tenure  of 
the  lands  in,  150.  Tobacco  its  staple, 
151.  Argall  its  deputy-governor,  151. 
Yeardley,  152.  Its  first  assembly,  153. 
Acquires  civil  freedom,  156.  Sir 
Francis  Wyatt,  157.  Servants  in,  175 
Slaves,  176.  Wyatt's  administration, 
178.  Silk  cultivated,  178.  Vines  and 
cotton,  179.  The  aborigines,  160. 
Massacre,  181.  Indian  war,  183. 
Commissioners  arrive,  189.  Spirit  of 
liberty,  190.  Yeardley  its  governor, 
195.  Harvey,  197.  Puritans  invited 
to,  198.  Impeaches  Harvey,  201.  Has 
Wyatt  for  governor,  202.  Berkeley, 
203.  Intolerance  in,  206.  Second 
Indian  massacre  and  war,  207.  Par- 
liament asserts  its  supremacy,  211 
Yields,  223.  During  the  protectorate, 
227.  Religious  liberty,  230.  Climate, 
233.  Exploring  parties,  n.  133.  Col- 
onizes North  Carolina,  135.  Its  peo- 
?le,  188.  Aristocracy  in,  190.  Slaves, 
92.  Parties  at  the  restoration,  195. 
Royalist  assembly,  196.  Navigation 
act  oppressive,  198.  A  state  religion 
established,  200.  Its  judiciary  irre- 
sponsible, 204.  Abolishes  universal 
suffrage,  207.  Given  to  Lord  Culpep- 
per,  209.  Contests  with  the  Indians, 
215.  Bacon's  rebellion,  218.  Bacon's 
assembly,  21 8.  Effects  of  its  rebellion, 
233.  Culpepper's  administration,  245. 
Lord  Howard's,  249.  Despotism  of 
James  II.,  252.  Resisted,  255.  Ef- 
fect of  the  revolution  of  1688,  HI.  25. 
The  church,  27.  Character  of  its  peo 
pie,  28.  Had  no  stockjobbers,  396 
Its  treaty  with  the  Six  Nations,  455. 

Vries,  De,  plants  the  Delaware,  11.  281 

w. 

Wadsworth,  William,  in.  67. 
Waldenses  in  New  Netherlands,  n.  302. 
Waldron,  Richard,  in.  180. 
Walker,  Henderson,  in.  20. 
Walker,  Sir  Hovenden,  in.  221. 
Walpole,  in.  325.     His  indifference  to 


HISTORY   OF  COLONIZATION. 


477 


the  colonies,  345.  Rejects  the  sys- 
tem of  taxing  colonies,  383.  Averse 
to  war  with  Spain,  438. 

Washington,  George,  in.  467. 

Wesley,  John  and  Charles,  HI.  428. 

West,  Francis,  i.  196. 

Wey mouth  explores  the  coast,  i.  114. 

Whalley,  Edward,  n.  34. 

Wheelwright,  John,  i.  388.  Removes 
to  Piscataqua,  392. 

Whitaker,  the  apostle  of  Virginia,  1. 144. 

Whitefield,  George,  in.  429.  Apologist 
of  slavery,  448. 

Wickliffe,  a  benefactor  to  America,  n. 
458. 

Wilford,  Thomas,  n.  230. 

Williams,  Eunice,  in.  213. 

Williams,  Roger,  i.  367.  His  exile,  377. 
Plants  Providence,  379.  His  charac- 
ter, 380. 

William  and  Mary  College  founded,  HI. 
25. 

William  of  Orange,  in.  2.  His  policy 
triumphant,  227.  False  to  the  liberty 
of  the  seas,  230. 


Willoughby's  voyage,  i.  70. 

Wilson  climbs  a  tree  to  preach,  i.  389. 

Wingfield   engages   in   colonization,   i. 

118,127. 

Winnebagoes,  in.  243. 
Wisconsin,  Jesuits  in,  in.  155. 
Witchcraft  in  Massachusetts,  in.  72.   In 

Salem,  84.     Executions   for,  88,  93 

Loses  its  terror,  97. 
Wyandots.     See  Huron-Iroquois. 
Wyatt's  administration,  i.  178. 


Y. 


Yamassees,  a   Creek    nation,   in.   2M. 

War  with,  327.     In  Georgia,  422. 
Yeardley,  i.  152.    Succeeds  Wyatt  19& 


z. 

Zealand,  n.  258 

Zenger,  John  Peter,  HI.  395. 


END    OF 


HISTORY    OF    COLONIZATION, 


